Rob Quick

I am the Associate Director of the Cyberinfrastructure Integration Research Center which is part of the Pervasive Technology Institute. I've been working in some capacity with RDA since 2014 and roles include the Co-Chair of the Technical Advisory Board, member of the Organizational Assembly, and co-chairs of two exciting RDA Interest Groups the CODATA/RDA Schools for Research Data Science Interest Group and the Data Fabric Interest Group. I've worked in various research cyberinfrastructure projects for nearly 20 years, including the Open Science Grid and eXtreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment.
 

What is your history with the RDA and what impact has it had on you?

I first attended RDA at P4 in Amsterdam. I had been visiting an EGI Foundation event, and took the opportunity to observe the proceedings. I attended P5 and P6 as the Organizational Assembly member from Indiana University and had several minor interactions with Interest Groups and Working Groups, however it was not until P7 in Tokyo I got fully involved with an RDA Working Group the CODATA/RDA Schools of Research Data Science for Low and Middle Income Countries. After this I got more heavily involved becoming a co-chair of that group along with co-chair of the Data Fabric Interest Group. I’m currently the co-chair of the Technical Advisory Board. RDA has not only led to professional networking groups but also direct funding from a variety of sources including the National Science Foundation, corporate and educational funders, and the RDA itself.
 

What do you feel you bring to the TAB and what is your experience so far in being a member?

I think I bring experience and understanding of RDA as an organization to the TAB along with a long history of providing cyberinfrastructure services to the international research community. This experience of taking what start as ideas in working groups or interest groups that become outputs or recommendations and moving them into community accepted data practices or technologies provides me with an overall vision of how to turn what is happening within RDA into innovation for the research community. Being on TAB and a co-chair during COVID has been difficult, the team building and cohesion that is often built through face-to-face interactions has been absent. However, despite this missing element the TAB has continued to provide feedback for ongoing plenary sessions and new Interest Groups and Working Groups.