MESSAGE from the DIRECTOR
Published April 2026
Dear SDSC Collaborators, Partners and All Friends:
Last month’s CENIC “The Right Connection” conference was one of several recent moments where SDSC expertise and work from across the center came together in ways that span research, education and infrastructure, with applications ranging from wildfire response and agriculture to secure computing and AI.
SDSC played a leading role in the program, including two keynote presentations. One focused on our National Research Platform collaboration with CENIC’s Artificial Intelligence Resource (CENIC AIR), which is driving social mobility by enabling experiential AI learning at community colleges and universities across California. Another focused on the importance of the research and education networking community becoming an active AI innovation infrastructure, drawing on examples from SDSC’s National Data Platform and AI-enabled workflows and digital twins for wildfire response. Additional SDSC work highlighted at the conference included partnerships supporting data-driven agriculture and workforce development, as well as leadership in secure and compliant research computing.
This issue also features research breakthroughs enabled by SDSC’s HPC systems, including advances in prostate cancer treatment, sickle cell disease research and PFAS environmental studies. It contains updates on recent SDSC education and training efforts, from undergraduate interns developing Alzheimer's research tools to a research academy for eighth- and ninth-grade students.
There is much to look forward to in the months ahead, and I am grateful for the extraordinary community whose work and expertise continue to come together across the center to make all of this possible.
Warm wishes,
Frank Würthwein
SDSC Director