Raghu Machiraju named interim faculty director for Translational Data Analytics

Raghu Machiraju has been named interim faculty director and co-lead of the Translational Data Analytics (TDA) program, a foundational component of the $500 million Discovery Themes initiative created by The Ohio State University to address global challenges.

Ohio State is investing extensively in data analytics, especially as it applies to core data and decision science, precision agriculture, health and wellness, and digital humanities.

Effective June 1, Machiraju began jointly overseeing TDA with Program Director David Mongeau, formerly of Battelle and Bell Labs. The partnership continues the Discovery Themes leadership model, which emphasizes both academic and business expertise.

Machiraju succeeds Philip Payne, a leader in the field of translational bioinformatics and clinical research informatics, who is leaving Ohio State at the end of June to serve as the founding director of the Institute for Informatics at Washington University in St. Louis.

Machiraju, a professor at Ohio State since 2000, serves on the faculty of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and has an appointment in the SBS-Biomedical Informatics Department in the College of Medicine. He holds a Ph.D. from Ohio State and an M.E. from the Indian Institute of Science, both in computer science. His primary research activities are data analysis and visualization, and in 2015 he co-founded the biotech startup aBioBot Inc.

“I look forward to working with Raghu,” said David Manderscheid, lead dean for TDA and executive dean and vice provost in the College of Arts and Sciences. “As a TDA Faculty in Residence, he has shown leadership and an innovational spirit. I am confident he will lead TDA forward, enhancing the excellent trajectory that Philip Payne helped launch us on.”

The university will initiate a search for a permanent faculty director later this year.