"Research is our core mission, and it is important to have someone in this role who wakes up thinking about solutions to meet the unique needs of researchers, research administrators and research institutes,” Kubit said. “Greg has demonstrated a tremendous commitment to those needs and has proven his ability to bring together the research community.”
Madden has done so for more than a decade at Penn State.
Since 2015, he served as senior adviser for Research Computing and Cyberinfrastructure (RCCI) in the Office of the Vice President for Research and will maintain a strong relationship with this faculty-led, shared governance organization in his new role.
“Greg’s past experience, deep understanding and steadfast support for the unique needs of our investigators, staff and students make him ideally suited to this role,” said Neil Sharkey, vice president for research at Penn State. “This position will afford Greg the opportunity to further advance IT infrastructure for research in new, more extensive and more powerful directions."
Madden also will support research-related aspects of the Reimagining IT initiative, which seeks to better align IT resources with the University’s mission and strategic plan, optimize investments in technology and services, and create capacity to support innovation.
“I’m excited and honored to move into this new role," Madden said. "We've made an enormous amount of progress in our ability to support researchers in the last four years. I plan to continue advocating for the needs of our University's researchers and hope that in this new position we can make the research computing and cyberinfrastructure ecosystem at Penn State the envy of our peers across the nation.”
Before working with RCCI, Madden served as associate IT director at Penn State Harrisburg and was the IT director for the Eberly College of Science. He received his master’s degree in geography from the University of North Carolina and his bachelor’s degree in computer science and philosophy from the University of Alabama.
“We have great people working in all the various units providing research support across the University,” Madden said. “I'm looking forward to working with all my partners across the University and with my colleagues in IT leadership."