Data Science Specialist Michael Franklin to Lead Computer Science at UChicago

The University of Chicago announced today that prominent data science scholar Michael Franklin will chair its Department of Computer Science and serve as senior advisor to the provost on computation and data science.

Franklin will provide leadership for a major expansion in faculty, education programs, and scientific directions of the computer science department, building upon ongoing UChicago data science projects, and the expanding research area of data science among the University’s affiliated institutions, including the MBL.

Research at the MBL depends increasingly on the generation of large amounts of data of many different types, ranging from to imaging, to genome sequences, to longitudinal environmental surveys.  As such, one of the key areas of strategic focus at the MBL is the use of cutting-edge imaging and computation to illuminate cellular function and previously unknown biology.

“We are delighted with the appointment of Professor Franklin and look forward to engaging him fully in the work of the MBL,” said Jonathan Gitlin, Director of the Division of Research at the MBL. “His appointment will greatly enrich our ongoing partnerships in computational sciences with UChicago and Argonne National Laboratory that are vital to our collective research vision.”