Alan Blatecky, far left, with UNC Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development Tony Waldrop, School of Government Dean Mike Smith, and former Chancellor James Moeser.

WASHINGTON, D.C., — Alan Blatecky, the former Deputy Director of  RENCI and Interim Director from December 2007 – September 2009, was named Acting Director of the National Science Foundation’s Office of Cyberinfrastructure (OCI) this week by NSF Director Arden Bement.  

Blatecky will lead the OCI while a national search for a permanent OCI head is conducted. He replaces Edward Seidel, who was named NSF’s Assistant Director for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) this week. Seidel has led the OCI since September 2008, but had been serving as the acting head of MPS since last August while Blatecky handled most of the day-to-day responsibilities in the OCI.

Blatecky came to RENCI in 2004, shortly after the institute’s founding. He was involved in much of the work that established RENCI, from recruiting staff to negotiating office space agreements to acquiring computing systems.

Before coming to RENCI he was executive director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center and also directed the NSF’s Middleware Initiative, an effort to develop the underlying software foundation needed for a nationwide cyberinfrastructure. In North Carolina, Blatecky was executive director of the North Carolina Networking Initiative and a vice president at the Microelectronics Center of North Carolina, now MCNC.

Blatecky maintains ties to RENCI and to UNC Chapel Hill by serving as a liaison and advisor to RENCI Director Stanley C. Ahalt and UNC Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development Tony Waldrop on advanced research and development initiatives.

The NSF OCI coordinates and supports the acquisition, development and provision of state-of-the-art cyberinfrastructure resources, tools and services essential to the conduct of 21st century science and engineering research and education.