The NSF-Simons SkAI Institute Leadership Team
The SkAI Institute is a collaboration between three lead institutions—Northwestern University (NU), The University of Chicago (UC), and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). There are also six partner institutions: University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), Adler Planetarium (Adler), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Fermilab, Toyota Technical Institute at Chicago (TTIC), and the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW–Madison).
In addition, SkAI Institute has a Satellite Network, which includes 15 institutions: Chicago State University (CSU), DePaul University (DePaul), Harold Washington College (HWC), Harry S. Truman College (Truman College), Howard University (HU), Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Kennedy-King College (KKC), Malcolm X College (MXC), Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU), Olive-Harvey College (OHC), Parkland College (PC), Richard J. Daley College (Daley College), University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), University of Hawaii at Manoa (UH Manoa), and Wilbur Wright College (WWC).
As seen below, the leadership of the SkAI Institute consists of representatives from the entire SkAI network (lead institutions, partner institutions, and the Satellite Network).
Executive Board
Joshua Frieman (UC)
Co-PI and Deputy Director for Professional Learning
Professor and Chair, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Link
Vicky Kalogera (NU)
PI and SkAI Institute Director
Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Link
Aggelos Katsaggelos (NU)
Co-PI and Deputy Director for Knowledge Transfer
Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Link
Gautham Narayan (UIUC)
Co-PI and Deputy Director for Research (Astro)
Associate Professor, Department of Astronomy
Link
Tjitske Starkenburg (NU)
Assistant Director for Research Operations
Research Assistant Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Link
Rebecca Willett (UC)
Co-PI and Deputy Director for Research (AI)
Professor, Department of Computer Science
Link
Operations Team
Armgard Haken (UIUC)
Project Development and Data Manager
Research Coordinator, Center for AstroPhysical Surveys, National Center for Supercomputing Applications
Link
Tjitske Starkenburg (NU)
Assistant Director for Research Operations
Research Assistant Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Link
Research Pillar Co-Chairs
Rina Barber (UC)
SkAI Pillar 1 (Enhanced Inference from Cosmic Survey Data)
Professor, Department of Statistics
Link
Michael Maire (UC)
SkAI Pillar 2 (AI-Accelerated Simulations with Multiscale Astrophysics)
Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science
Link
Adam Miller (NU)
SkAI Pillar 1 (Enhanced Inference from Cosmic Survey Data)
Assistant Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Link
Tjitske Starkenburg (NU)
SkAI Pillar 2 (AI-Accelerated Simulations with Multiscale Astrophysics)
Research Assistant Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Link
Joaquin Vieira (UIUC)
SkAI Pillar 3 (Learning-Based Astrophysical Survey and Instrument Design)
Professor, Departments of Astronomy and Physics
Link
Ermin Wei (NU)
SkAI Pillar 3 (Learning-Based Astrophysical Survey and Instrument Design)
Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Link
Activities and Programming Co-Chairs
Alex Drlica-Wagner (UC)
Mentoring and Professional Learning
Assistant Professor, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Link
Han Liu (NU)
Community Software, Data, and Hardware Resources
Professor, Department of Computer Science
Link
Jesús Pando (DePaul)
Undergraduate Education
Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Physics and Astrophysics
Link
Noelle Samia (NU)
Mentoring and Professional Learning
Associate Professor, Department of Statistics and Data Science
Link
Software Engineers
Satellite Network Members
Other Senior Personnel
Jay Alameda (UIUC)
Senior Technical Program Manager, Center for AstroPhysical Surveys, National Center for Supercomputing Applications
Link
Bill Gropp (UIUC)
Professor, Department of Computer Science; Director, National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)
Link
Maria Kokkori (NU)
Research Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Link
Matthew Krafczyk (UIUC)
Research Scientist, Center for AstroPhysical Surveys, National Center for Supercomputing Applications
Link
The SkAI Institute is one of the National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes funded by the US National Science Foundation and Simons Foundation.
Information on National AI Institutes is available at aiinstitutes.org.
SkAI Institute
875 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 4010
Chicago, IL 60611
skai-institute at u.northwestern.edu
