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Dr. David Catarious to be Director of Cybersecurity Programs & Chief Information Officer

Recent News

Astronomers Detect Earliest and Most Distant Blazar in the Universe

A groundbreaking discovery has revealed the presence of a blazar—a supermassive black hole with a jet pointed directly at Earth—at an extraordinary redshift of 7.0. The object, designated VLASS J041009.05−013919.88 (J0410−0139), is the most distant blazar ever identified, providing a rare glimpse into the epoch of reionization when the universe was less than 800 million years old.

Dr. David Catarious to be Director of Cybersecurity Programs & Chief Information Officer

Associated Universities Inc. (AUI) is pleased to announce the selection of Dr. David Catarious as the new Director of Cybersecurity Programs and Chief Information Officer, effective 23 April 2018. Catarious’ appointment signals a new direction for AUI, which will be expanding its research and education activities into the cybersecurity arena. “We are excited to have Dave on the team,” said AUI President, Adam Cohen. “The science community faces unique challenges in the collection, transmission, and security of data and has often made novel advances in microelectronics, high performance computation, and data sharing to overcome these challenges. Dave’s experience and creativity are a perfect fit for our entrepreneurial environment as we expand our portfolio into exciting, challenging and much needed areas of research.” Dr. Catarious is joining AUI from his position as a Senior Advisor for Cyber Policy at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). In that role, he served as the Department’s representative on the National Security Council’s Cyber Response Group, advised Departmental leadership on DOE’s cybersecurity research and development portfolio, and focused on energy-sector supply chain cyber threats, threat analysis, and incident response. Prior to his cybersecurity role, he served as the Senior Advisor to DOE’s Under Secretary for Science and Energy, where he helped oversee basic science, applied energy research, technology development, and deployment efforts, including the stewardship of 13 of the 17 DOE National Laboratories. Dr. Catarious also serves as a Cryptologic Warfare Officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, where he is stationed with Fleet Cyber Command and U.S. Tenth Fleet. Dr. Catarious earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics from Virginia Tech, and his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Duke University. “I could not be more excited to join Adam and his team at AUI,” Dr. Catarious said. “AUI has a demonstrated record of success in running large-scale scientific facilities and collaborations, and I’m looking forward to expanding that expertise further into the cybersecurity arena. Both the public and private sectors in the U.S. face significant cyber challenges, and AUI is excited to be pushing for some innovative and game-changing solutions.” Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) is a U.S. non-profit corporation, which operates the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), the Green Bank Observatory (GBO) and the Long Baseline Observatory (LBO) under cooperative agreements with the National Science Foundation (NSF). NRAO facilities include the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico and the North American portion of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile. For further information please visit aui.edu.

Recent News

Astronomers Detect Earliest and Most Distant Blazar in the Universe

A groundbreaking discovery has revealed the presence of a blazar—a supermassive black hole with a jet pointed directly at Earth—at an extraordinary redshift of 7.0. The object, designated VLASS J041009.05−013919.88 (J0410−0139), is the most distant blazar ever identified, providing a rare glimpse into the epoch of reionization when the universe was less than 800 million years old.