About Dr. Datta, Ph.D., MSSE

While working on glycogenes at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), Dr. Datta earned MS in Software Engineering from National University (San Diego, CA). This program of National University running in the evening helped him in gaining knowledge in computer science while earning MSSE degree. This knowledge was useful while writing the microarray/bioinformatics part of the Glue Grant on Glycobiology (PI: James C. Paulson, President - TSRI) that received funding from NIH (see his article on glycobioinformatics). He also had the opportunity working with Prof. C-H Wong (EX-President of Academia Sinica and a member of the National Science Academy) in TSRI before joining NU as a full-time faculty.

Prof. Datta is teaching Computer Science in local Universities in San Diego since May, 2000. Until recently, he also served as the Director (Technology R & D) of National University Community Research Institute (NUCRI; 2004 - 2014) that served as the bridge between the National University and the Communities, developing tools and technologies that could empower the communities. He is the Founder of Datta Consulting Group, a consulting company for developing software tools and technologies primarily for healthcare industry. He is also the co-founder of Life Tectonics Research Center in India dedicated in community health research, primarily for childhealth. His Group developed various software tools for the State of Illinois and National City for their School Health Programs.

Dr. Datta often guides MSCS students for their Capstone Projects. As a Director of NUCRI, he supervised the Technical Interns (see the profiles) working on various software developmental projects. He also served in various capacities for XSEDE programs including serving as the Campus Champion until recently. In addition, he organized various technical events in local and international conferences promoting use of technologies for improving healthcare while bringing awareness to the cause. For example, in 2009, he organized a panel discussing on H1N1 that created a grave concern among the experts in US and other countries with level 6 alert (the maximum level in the alert system) by WHO. The experts in this panel were from CDC, San Diego Supercomputing Center, and the University of Texas. See: Cyberinfrastructure in Healthcare Management. Arun K. Datta (moderator), Terry Boyd, Wilfred Li, Fang-Pang Lin, Stanley J. Watowich, Peter Arzberger. Proceedings in the SC09: The International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis, Portland (OR), November 14 - 20, 2009.

In addition, Dr. Datta supervised the 'InCommunity' event promoting the 'Cyberinfrastructure' in the Community, an NSF funded project of HASTAC in 2006-2007. Community services include involvement with the San Diego North Economic Developmental Council that promotes economically beneficial community activities. In the past, he served as a member of the Gandhi Scholarship Committee of the San Diego Indian American Society, which awards scholarship to the talented students pursuing Higher Studies after high school graduation. In recognition of his community services, he received ''Outstanding Service Award' from the National University in 2008.

For his research interest on Big Data Science, he often attends relevant workshops for hands-on experience on software for data analysis with more specific interest on Big Data analysis. In the past, he attended workshops on Gordon (UCSD), and EupathDB (University of Georgia) to name a few. With his long experience of working on glycoscience, he is now taking considerable interest working on the Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation (see: cdgcare.com)

  • More than 20 years of experience on Project Management
  • Expertise on Biomedical Informatics (Health Informatics and Bioinformatics, particularly, Glycobioinformatics)
  • Working experience on molecular biology (wet lab) and computational biology
  • Special interest on identifying Glycosylation defects in Congenital Disorders (CDG), Genomic & proteomic data Analysis, particularly for Precision Medicine
  • Served XSEDE in various capacities including Campus Champion program
  • Provided technology leadership for various programs (HASTAC, ARTCA, UCOP, etc)
  • His group (DCG) is involved in developing tools and technologies that improves healthcare delivery and remote monitoring of patients at the individualized level (see: Body Sensing System)
    Past Experience includes:
  • Alumni, Calcutta University
  • Alma mater, UW-Madison
  • Instructor (Pharmacology Dept.), UT Southwestern Medical Center (UTSWMC), Dallas
  • Scientific staff (Molecular Biology Dept.), The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI)
  • Scientific staff, Indian Council of Medical Research
  • British Council Fellow, University of Newcastle upon Tyne (UK; Dept. of Chemistry)
  • Ph.D. completed under late Prof. J. J. Ghosh (see: Prof. J. J. Ghosh Foundation)
  • Worked with Dr. V.M.Katoch (ICMR), David Minnikin (U-Ncl), Kuni Takayama (UW-Madison), Mark Lehrman (UTSWMC), James Paulson (TSRI), Chi-Huey Wong (TSRI)