MESSAGE from the DIRECTOR
Published August 2025
Dear SDSC Collaborators, Partners and All Friends:
The Societal Computing and Innovation Lab, led by Ilkay Altinas, recently launched the Wildfire Science and Technology Commons, which will serve as a public nexus to enable scientists, technology innovators and practitioners to work together to accelerate scalable wildfire solutions. Learn more about their efforts in the Wildfire Commons article.
Additionally, Andreas Goetz worked on a project with several collaborators to better understand how a fungus used in foods like soy sauce and miso can help solve global plastic pollution; read about this effort in the Researcher Spotlight section.
July marked another major milestone for UC San Diego’s School of Computing, Information and Data Science, of which SDSC is a foundational pillar. SDSC extends its congratulations to Rajesh Gupta, who was appointed as dean of the new school. Read more about Dean Gupta’s plans for the upcoming months in the Highlights article.
Several innovative discoveries made possible by the Expanse system at SDSC were featured in the HPCwire online publication. For instance, Expanse simulations run by researchers from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and the University of Florida provided new characterizations of hemodynamics in blood vessel sprouts – allowing scientists to better predict how new blood vessels grow. This knowledge could advance medical treatment for numerous conditions involving abnormal blood vessel formation. Read about this and more in the Highlights section.
Our workforce development efforts ranged from high school to collegiate levels. Read about the MAPS Finale, led by Ange Mason, which included more than 50 San Diego County secondary students showcasing their projects to the community. Additionally, SDSC hosted a Student Cluster Competition, led by Mary Thomas, where one of our UC San Diego teams took first place. Details about these activities are found in our Around SDSC section.
I encourage you to review our newly published 2024-2025 Annual Report, which highlights the center’s impacts for science and society over the past year. SDSC has a pivotal role within the multi-sector research innovation ecosystem, and I am proud of the center’s leadership in advancing scientific discovery. A special thanks to Ben Tolo for his talented design work on the report.
Thank you to everyone for your partnership in our SDSC community and we look forward to working together in the coming academic year.
Best wishes,
Frank Würthwein
SDSC Director