CAC - Key Persons
Adam joined the Cornell Center for Advanced Computing in 2014 and is a member of the consulting group. He has been working in research at Cornell since 2005, first as a Research Associate in the Astronomy Department and then an Astronomy Programmer at the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center and latterly Science Software Architect for the CCAT Telescope project. With a focus on the computational, and data-intensive aspects of research at all stages of the research lifescycle, Adam is a member of the international North American Nanohertz Obversatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) and the PALFA pulsar survey collaboration.
Job Titles:
- Technical Consultant
- Cornell Center of Advanced Computing in 2001 As a Systems Support Specialist
Brenda joined the Cornell Center of Advanced Computing in 2001 as a systems support specialist. Prior to joining CAC, Brenda was a technology services consultant and distance learning coordinator at Cornell ILR.
Focus: Support of infrastructure resources, including backup using EZ-Backup for researchers.
Job Titles:
- Adjunct Professor
- Senior Research Associate
Focus: Computational physics and biology, complex systems, data-driven modeling, scientific software development, and training in computational science
Christopher joined the Cornell Center for Advanced Computing in 2021 as a member of the Consulting Group. Previously, he contributed analytic and computational social science expertise to a multi-disciplinary team competing in the DARPA "Ground Truth" challenge; performed social network analysis, applied machine learning, and developed data to reveal patterns of inter(social)class communications in online social networks for an NSF-funded project to develop "A new infrastructure for monitoring social class networks"; and developed real-time monitoring tools to test theories of social contagion processes using social media data from Arab Spring for a DOD Minerva grant: "Tracking critical-mass outbreaks in social contagions". Christopher has also worked as a consultant, developing software, creating training materials and educating analysts about statistical methods and software tools for the Centers for Disease Control. His experience includes effective collaboration with researchers from the social and biological sciences, information and computer science, physics, mathemathics, and engineering.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director for Systems and Operations
- Cornell CAC in 2025 As Associate Director for Systems and Operations
Focus: Lead the team focused on design, implementation and support of systems and infrastructure for high performance and cloud computing systems.
Hart and the systems team architect, deploy and support CAC high-performance computing clusters and Cornell ™s on-demand cloud computing services, Red Cloud and Red Cloud Secure. His responsibilities include supporting Cornell faculty and researchers, federal agency awards and Partner Program projects. His expertise includes clustered, high performance and large capacity storage systems, design and architecture of HPC systems, data center networking and security, monitoring and configuration management tools.
He has participated in instrumentation and systems engineering projects for NASA, US Department of Energy, University of California Observatories, Keck Observatory, Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratories.
Hart Hancock joined Cornell CAC in 2025 as Associate Director for Systems and Operations. He is an IT professional with over 20 years of experience in research and higher education, working directly with faculty and researchers to realize their goals. Highly technical in High Performance Computing, Petabyte-scale storage clusters, scientific computing and instrumentation, I work with folks across a broad range of academic disciplines.
Job Titles:
- Administrative Coordinator
Focus: Coordination of all of the organization's activities
Job Titles:
- in 2017 As a Systems Consultant
- Systems Consultant
Focus: Design and management of Windows systems and infrastructure supporting research
Kim joined the CAC in 2017 as a systems consultant. She has expertise in Microsoft platforms including Windows Domains, Server, and Desktop environments. Prior to 2017 she worked as a systems consultant at CISER for 12 years. Prior to joining Cornell, she was a Windows System Administrator at leading edge research and technology corporations prior.
Job Titles:
- Programmer
- Systems Analyst
Focus: Design and implementation of computing technologies in support of batch scheduling and data intensive applications
Focus: Design and implementation of systems and infrastructure for high performance and cloud computing systems
Job Titles:
- Associate Director, Strategic Partnerships
Focus: Strategic partnerships, corporate relations, media/pr, communications, proposals, events
Paul manages campus and strategic relations for the Center, as well as Web communications, media relations, proposals, and the Partner Program. He is one of the authors of a national report on cloud computing. Previously, Paul held management positions in the real-time simulation industry, working on projects for NASA, the commercial airlines, and the healthcare industry. Prior to that, he provided communications and new business consulting to IBM, Chicago Pneumatic, and others businesses. Paul ™s postgraduate studies were at Syracuse University. He may be reached at 607-227-1865 or by email
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director, Cornell Center for Advanced Computing
- Director, Cornell Center for Advanced Computing / Cornell University
Focus: Center oversight and management, strategic initiatives, partnerships and collaborations
Rich is the Director of the Cornell Center for Advanced Computing, leading the planning and operations of the center, with a focus on meeting the evolving needs of Cornell researchers and the broader scientific community. Rich joined CAC in 2017 as Deputy Director, coming from Indiana University, where he previously led the Campus Bridging and Research Infrastructure team. Rich earned his PhD in Informatics at the Indiana University Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering. Rich ™s research interests include the establishment and governance of cyberinfrastructure organizations, high performance and cloud computing, application containerization, and ethnography of virtual organizations.
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Associate
Focus: Computer applications in physics and fluid dynamics, numerical simulation and data analysis on parallel computers, high performance computing
Focus: Design and implementation of systems and infrastructure for high performance and cloud computing systems
Job Titles:
- Associate Director, Consulting
Susan leads a team of professionals that provide programming, code improvement, cloud application enablement, web, database, and education and outreach consulting services. Her team is also responsible for providing training to our clients and the national HPC community. Susan was an early proponent of online learning and is an invited speaker on that topic and other advanced information technologies.