Purdue University

Rajesh Kalyanam, a senior research scientist in the Rosen Center for Advanced Computing’s Scientific Solutions Group (SSG) who has played a major role in the funding of projects like GABBs, GeoEDF and Anvil, is leaving RCAC this week after 19 years of employment for a new opportunity at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

“Rajesh has been a leader in research software engineering, contributing to more projects than I can list,” says Carol Song, RCAC lead research scientist, who heads SSG.

After earning his bachelor’s degree in computer engineering in India, Rajesh came to the United States for graduate school, and chose Purdue because others in his family had graduated from here. He received his PhD in computer engineering from Purdue, working on the application of theorem proving to automated planning, before large language models were in widespread use.

Because he initially did not have any funding for graduate school, Rajesh pursued research assistantships and ended up joining SSG in what was then known as Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP). After working part-time through his graduate school years, he accepted a full-time position after finishing his PhD.

“Several of the ‘firsts’ in my professional career have been through my work at RCAC,” says Rajesh, “including my first conference, first research publication and first grant proposal.”

Rajesh developed the PRESTIGE system to manage and visualize satellite data from the Purdue Terrestrial Observatory, well ahead of the science gateways space. He went on to create iData, a geospatial data system that became the foundation for GABBs, a $5M NSF-funded effort to build reusable software components for geospatial data. That work evolved into GeoEDF, an open-source, extensible framework that Rajesh architected and built. GeoEDF has supported various research applications including impact of aging dams in U.S. and flood modeling and impact analysis at multiple scales through the I-GUIDE Institute collaboration with UIUC, where Rajesh plays a key role in cyberinfrastructure.

He's also played a major role in RCAC’s high-performance computing initiatives, serving as Co-PI for Purdue’s NSF-funded Anvil system and working directly with researchers and educators, especially supporting new HPC users.

“Rajesh truly exemplifies what it means to be a dedicated research scientist and cyberinfrastructure expert. On top of everything, Rajesh is a great colleague, always ready to brainstorm and help wherever help is needed. We’ve had a great run together and I wish him the very best in this next chapter of his career,” says Song.

In addition to being a great research scientist and colleague, Rajesh has also played an important role in mentoring younger staff members.

“I first worked with Rajesh during my initial internship in 2019,” says Noah Samuel Oller Smith, a research software engineer in SSG. “This was my first professional experience, and it taught me what it means to develop software for research groups. Since then, I’ve collaborated with scientific computing teams at organizations like NASA and NOAA and have contributed back to RCAC as an RSE. I can confidently say I wouldn’t have come this far without Rajesh’s mentorship.”

“RCAC has been a great place to work,” says Rajesh. “Everyone is really unassuming, helpful and friendly. I’ve built close friendships with people in SSG and beyond, and I think that’s a testament to the kind of people RCAC is able to attract and retain.”

Everyone in RCAC is grateful for Rajesh's many contributions and wishes him all the best in this next chapter of his career!