I am delighted to announce that Brenda Rubenstein, Associate Professor of Chemistry and of Physics, has been named Director of the Data Sciences Institute (DSI), effective July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2028. This well-deserved appointment recognizes Brenda’s leadership, vision, compassion, service and deep commitment to the educational and research missions of the Institute.
Brenda, who earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Physics from Brown in 2007, has been a professor at Brown since 2016 and brings valuable experience and achievements to the director position. In addition to her role as Associate Professor of Chemistry and Physics, Brenda is a graduate trainer in the Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry (MCB) Department and Computational Biology Program. A computational scientist by training, Brenda’s current research focuses on developing new electronic structure methods, quantum and molecular computation, and computational biophysics, all of which heavily leverage data science and machine learning.
An accomplished scholar, Brenda earned her Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from Columbia University and held the prestigious Lawrence Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Her accolades include a Fulbright Scholarship, the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, and recognition as an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow. She has also received Brown University’s Diversity and Inclusion Faculty Award, highlighting her contributions to fostering an inclusive academic environment.
Brenda will succeed Suresh Venkatasubramanian, who has been serving as the DSI’s interim director since September 2024. Sohini Ramachandran, who led Data Science at Brown for four years and became the Founding Director of the DSI in 2023, completed her service in September and returned to research and teaching in her role as the Hermon C Bumpus Professor of Biology.
Please join me in congratulating Brenda on her appointment and in celebrating her continued contributions to our community and to the DSI.
Sincerely,
Francis J. Doyle III
Provost
This announcement was originally published in Today@Brown on December 11, 2024.