Prof. Hridesh Rajan, professor in the Department of Computer Science, was named Kingland Professor of Data Analytics.

Rajan is the director of the Laboratory for Software Design in the Department of Computer Science at Iowa State. Through invention and refinement of shared cyberinfrastructures for data-driven sciences, Rajan’s research on the Boa project, a software language and infrastructure that makes data mining easier, is decreasing the barrier to entry in data-driven science. He founded the Midwest Big Data Summer School to deliver broadly accessible data science curricula and serves as a Steering Committee member of the Midwest Big Data Hub (MBDH).

He received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award in 2009, LAS Early Achievement in Research Award in 2010, a Big-12 Fellowship in 2012, and an Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Senior Membership in 2014. His recent work includes co-leading efforts to establish three new educational programs in data science at ISU.

The funds will support his research in investigating shared infrastructures for data driven science giving researchers easy access to big data analysis that would otherwise require specialized computation expertise, datasets, and infrastructure they may not have access to.

“This Kingland award will have a strong positive impact in that it will open new doors for me,” he said. “The support will allow me to reach out and visit a broader set of agencies and foundations to tell them about the research and education programs in data science at Iowa State University, and to seek their feedback.”

The awards are part of a $1.5 million donation to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the College of Business, and the College of Engineering by Kingland, a global leader in data quality control, development and risk management, and from a personal donation by its owners, David and Deb Kingland, to support several areas in data science. The donation also established the Kingland Data Analytics Scholarship Fund, which will help attract top students and make the opportunity for a degree in data programs available to more students.