2023 Steering Committee Candidate Information
Published: Nov 10, 2023
Candidates for the 2023 US-RSE Steering Committee election are listed below. Five of these candidates will be elected for a two-year term starting January 2024.
If you have questions for the candidates, or questions about the election, please use the #election channel on Slack. You must be registered as a member by Wednesday, November 8th to be eligible to vote in this election.
Candidates are listed in alphabetical order.
- Abbey Roelofs
- Alex Koufos
- David Beck
- Ian Cosden
- Jeff Carver
- Keith Beattie
- Mahmood Shad
- Torin White
More information about the candidates can be found below.
Abbey Roelofs (she/her)
Why do you want to be on the US-RSE Steering Committee?
I’ve been doing RSE work for over eight years now, but I didn’t really know there was a term for what I was doing until discovering US-RSE. This organization has given me a community of people who understand the challenges and rewards of working in research software. I’ve benefited immensely from the insights, suggestions, and support of others in this community, especially in my role as a team lead working to develop and grow an RSE group. Much of what I’ve gained here simply couldn’t be found anywhere else, and I’d like the opportunity to help US-RSE continue in this vein of providing connections and support for research software engineers who may not otherwise have that.
How do you contribute to the US-RSE Association or RSE community more broadly?
Since discovering US-RSE, I’ve participated regularly in community calls and the group leaders network. I’m currently a co-chair of the Community Call Working Group that organizes and plans the monthly community calls, and I previously worked as part of the job posting team, reviewing and posting submitted jobs on the US-RSE website.
In my daily life as an RSE and lead of a small group of RSEs, I’ve worked to develop my group from a somewhat disorganized, every-coder-for-themselves mentality to a more unified team. During my tenure as lead, we’ve come a long way in implementing and following software engineering best practices and have developed a constantly evolving set of standards and procedures we follow as a group. These practices have improved both our group dynamics and our software products, and I’ve tried to find ways to share this experience with the US-RSE community.
Alex Koufos (he/him)
Why do you want to be on the US-RSE Steering Committee?
I am very passionate about the concept of Research Software Engineering! I believe RSEs are extremely important for successful research/science.
When I was finishing up my degree near the end of 2014, I had already come to the conclusion that RSEng was what I wanted to do. However, at that time, I wasn’t aware of the term RSE, and in fact, it seemed to not exist in the USA. When looking for jobs, I ran into difficulties finding this role, but ended in a position working with 3D simulation for naval training purposes. This allowed me to better develop my software engineering skills, but I was still missing the scientific aspects. This eventually lead me to Stanford where I was able to apply my RSE skills towards robotic research and stumbled upon the US-RSE. I knew instantly that I had found my place!
Thus, I want to help build our community by promoting the concept to aid others in realizing they can follow their passion more directly.
How do you contribute to the US-RSE Association or RSE community more broadly?
Over the last ~3 years I have been a member of the US-RSE Association. I actively participate in the community. Throughout this time I have led or participated in multiple working groups, attended the 2022 community building workshop and US-RSE ‘23 conference, helped with website content and design, and as a member and co-chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Working Group participated in developing our DEI Mission Statement and several DEI-oriented events.
In the research community I work in, I am consistently promoting the concept of an RSE, the US-RSE Association specifically, and providing general awareness of RSEng through presentations, papers, and collaborations with research colleagues.
As a Steering Committee Member, I would like to focus more effort on building our community by reaching out to the RSEs that are unaware of the term. We have an amazing community that is welcoming and passionate about supporting them.
David Beck (he/him)
Why do you want to be on the US-RSE Steering Committee?
I believe that RSEs not only accelerate the pace of science and engineering, but fundamentally change the kinds of questions researchers can ask. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that RSE jobs will grow by about 20% in the next 10 years (https://www.bls.gov/, 9/21/2023). US-RSE can play an important role in driving this growth in three ways:
- Foster the creation of new educational opportunities to increase the ranks of RSEs. Working with workforce dev stakeholders such as the government (e.g., NSF), state legislatures, and foundation funding sources to promote the role of US-RSE in educating a growing market sector to meet the demands of a modern AI enabled world.
- Facilitate, motivate, and advise the creation of new RSE entities. Experienced, successful sites like these can serve as models of how to build RSE entities.
- Continue to find new ways to create institutional culture change around the value of RSEs I would like our community to be a leader in creating, driving and fostering the growth of RSEs to move that BLS estimate of 20% growth in RSEs even higher.
How do you contribute to the US-RSE Association or RSE community more broadly?
As director of the University of Washington Scientific Software Engineering Center, I advocate for the creation and funding of RSE entities across the US and Pacific Nothwest. Recently, I was part of a team that created a Career Guidebook for Hiring, Managing, and Retaining Data Scientists and Research Software Engineers in Academia: https://academicdatascience.org/community-projects/career-guidebook/. In addition, I have been asked to talk about our emerging program as a model at UW to over a dozen universities, philanthropies and independent research institutions in the last year. I very much enjoy these opportunities to share our lessons and mistakes to help other entities get off the ground, but it is not a particularly scalable model for me to continue this as an individual and this is one way I have really appreciated the US-RSE to help build out this capacity. At my home institution, I have successfully advocated for the creation of new RSE job roles and expanded the pay range for existing RSE job roles. Additionally, we have created policies that explicitly state the expectations for our RSEs in terms of their co-authorship, attribution and ownership of the research produced at UW.
Ian Cosden (he/him)
Why do you want to be on the US-RSE Steering Committee?
I’ve been involved with US-RSE since its inception and have taken a leadership role for one simple reason: I believe this community needs and deserves a unified, welcoming, and active professional association. A cohesive and connected RSE community can drive progress and influence change in ways individuals can’t. Advocacy for one is advocacy for all. We’ve made significant headway but there’s much more to do. I want to continue championing RSEs as a first-class member of the research community who should have stable funding, long-term career opportunities, and be treated as valued collaborators.
If elected, over the next two years, my goal is to provide continuity and stability of leadership while we transition US-RSE to this exciting new phase of funding, paid staff, and member-driven initiatives. I am fully committed to US-RSE’s mission and will continue to devote myself to advancing the organization in a sustainable manner that keeps its community-first grassroots character.
How do you contribute to the US-RSE Association or RSE community more broadly?
I was one of the founding members of US-RSE and have had the great privilege of serving as Chair of the Steering Committee since it was formed. Early on, I led the community drafting of the US-RSE mission statement and since then I’ve been involved in virtually every aspect of the organization. I’ve spearheaded, organized, and participated in multiple US-RSE panels, events, and collaborations. I was the lead organizer for the US-RSE Community Building Workshop in April ‘22 (and lead PI for the enabling grant) and I am the PI for the new, nearly $800k, Sloan Foundation grant that has enabled US-RSE to hire staff, fund new community initiatives, and support necessary new organizational infrastructure. I’ve overseen the transition to our new fiscal sponsor, serving as the unpaid, volunteer Project Director prior to hiring an Executive Director.
Currently, I am the Senior Director for Research Software Engineering at Princeton University, where I’ve built a central team of RSEs, starting with a single RSE in 2016 to 24 RSEs today. I actively use my position as a platform to advertise RSEs’ impact on research and advocate for RSEs both locally and in the broader community. I’ve collected a number of lessons learned that I’m always happy to share with the community either through conversations, presentations, or formal publications (e.g. recent papers on RSE career entry points and the Princeton RSE group model).
Jeff Carver
Why do you want to be on the US-RSE Steering Committee?
As a founding member of the US-RSE Steering Committee, I have enjoyed the opportunity to contribute to the direction of US-RSE. US-RSE is at a critical point in our history, having grown from a small group to a community of over 2000 who have had their first annual conference. At this inflection point with the hiring of an Executive Director, it is more important than ever for the Steering Committee to ensure the organization continues making strides for RSEs. In addition to my role with US-RSE, I have also had the privilege of serving on other steering committees and holding other administrative roles. These experiences and leadership roles have allowed me to affect positive change on organizations by identifying blind spots internally or new developments externally and responding to them. In addition, in my role as a Professor of Computer Science focused on Software Engineering, my research focuses on understanding and advancing the field of research software engineering and RSEs.
How do you contribute to the US-RSE Association or RSE community more broadly?
First, as a founding member of the US-RSE Steering Committee, I have served in multiple roles, including Secretary, International Council Representative, and most recently Vice Chair. Second, I started and co-lead the US-RSE Education & Training Working group, which organizes and hosts a quarterly speaker series. Third, I co-founded and co-lead a new working group on Code Review. During the Review BoF at the US-RSE conference, the need for such a group was evident. Therefore, I took the lead in organizing an effort to propose and create this new working group. Fourth, I served on the committee to recruit, interview, and select the US-RSE Executive Director. Finally, I took an active role in the first US-RSE conference by co-organizing a workshop, delivering a talk on code review, and serving as a panelist for the Code Review BoF. Beyond these specific service roles for US-RSE, in my work as a Professor of Computer Science focused on Software Engineering, I have conducted and published numerous studies on the people and processes involved in research software engineering. My future research will continue to focus on important questions related to RSEs and research software. This expertise in software engineering and its application to the context of research software as well as my role as a faculty member at an R1 University provides an important perspective to the discussions and decisions made by the US-RSE Steering Committee.
Keith Beattie (he/him)
Why do you want to be on the US-RSE Steering Committee?
Having been a member of the US-RSE for several years now and an RSE for at least a decade before the term was coined, I have a long history and deep passion for the RSE role and would like to extend that experience to the community by taking a larger role in the US-RSE organization.
Not enough people know what an RSE is. Even those who might currently be one, educate them, hire or fund them. I would like to help the US-RSE extend their reach by educating the larger tech community on what an RSE is and the impact they have on their organization’s mission. By establishing that role and its impact beyond traditional research organizations, we strengthen our arguments for stable funding and a diversity of recruitment to support long-term RSE careers. This effort can be used to better fill the pipeline of RSEs from industry and from underrepresented communities. Increasing diversity brings a breadth of ideas and approaches to the field while creating recruitment and retention advantages.
How do you contribute to the US-RSE Association or RSE community more broadly?
I have long bemoaned to my coworkers and bosses on how software is not treated nearly as seriously as it should be in science. And not just the software but the people who create and run it are often not recognized proportionally to the impact their work has on the scientific results. Finally putting some “skin in the game”, I started an informal “CSE Cabal” at LBL (CSE is the job title for Software Engineers) to support and build a community of RSEs. I’m now turning that into an LBL-RSE affiliate group. Having made some traction with upper management at LBL, I am now the lead of a new Sustainable Software Engineering group with 6 RSEs working across multiple scientific disciplines. This came as a result of me successfully demonstrating, over the course of several years, the importance and impact of having a funded “Software Engineering” effort on multiple DOE projects.
I’ve been an active member of the BSSw and US-RSE for several years now, participating in meetings and producing content for web sites and working groups. Most recently, I led a Birds of a Feather session at the US-RSE23 conference on “What it means to be an RSE at a National Lab” where we explored the differences between and challenges faced by RSE at various National Labs.
Mahmood Shad (he/him/his)
Why do you want to be on the US-RSE Steering Committee?
I am excited about possibly joining the US-RSE Steering Committee because I believe I can bring a fresh perspective and dynamic strategy from years of leading a diverse RSE team at Harvard University. My experience developing business models and building connections across various disciplines supports the committee’s goal of empowering RSEs within the scientific community.
My technical journey through RSE, HPC, cloud, and computational science prepares me for this community role. My involvement in RSE events as technical chair to sponsor chair gives me an insight into our community’s core. I am passionate about promoting the impact of RSEs in academia and industry, supporting sustainable research software, and advocating stronger connections among RSEs. This is an opportunity for me to enhance our community’s engagement and promote novel RSE advancements. I am ready to help steer our US-RSE community toward even more significant achievements.
How do you contribute to the US-RSE Association or RSE community more broadly?
My contributions to the US-RSE and broader RSE community are in different areas, reflecting a commitment to advancing our field. As a sponsorship chair for the 2023 US-RSE Conference, I facilitated several funding channels, enhancing the community’s strength and reach. Additionally, I have been supporting our community as a program committee member for multiple RSE workshops at Supercomputing Conferences (SC). My technical chair role in the US-RSE 2022 Workshop shows my dedication to community skill-building. Through invited talks, I have advocated for collaboration and tech adoption within RSE teams, fostering a knowledge-sharing culture. These efforts, coupled with my hands-on project leadership in computational research, exemplify my active, comprehensive involvement in our community, continually driving towards innovation and excellence in research software engineering.
Torin White (they/them)
Why do you want to be on the US-RSE Steering Committee?
As Lead Data Scientist with Research IT at the University of Illinois Chicago, I resonate with the US-RSE mission of providing community for “those who identify with the role (not necessarily the title) of Research Software Engineer”. In the time that I have been part of the association, I feel I have found such a wonderful community that I would like to help sustain and grow. I have extensive experience with both project team and organizational leadership, as well as a varied background with degrees in both the humanities and social sciences and experience supporting STEM researchers that I look forward to lending to future US-RSE efforts.
How do you contribute to the US-RSE Association or RSE community more broadly?
Most recently, I’ve contributed to US-RSE by serving on the conference committee as Publications Co-chair and Notebook Subcommittee member this past year for the first US-RSE conference held on the University of Illinois Chicago campus. More generally, the US-RSE community and resources such as the Career Guidebook are invaluable to my team and I at UIC as we begin to establish a RSEng program and community to more fully support the researchers at our institution. In addition to my involvement in US-RSE, I have been part of the Software, Data and Library Carpentries communities for many years as an instructor, workshop organizer and lesson developer/maintainer. I have been actively developing and maintaining Carpentries’ incubator lessons on writing reproducible publications with RMarkdown, now Quarto, for the past three years, which informed my role on the US-RSE conference Notebooks subcommittee in developing a conference submission catered to the highlighting the work we do as software engineers and academics.