Working Groups are designed to support shared R&D activities for determining the best path or approach for a problem domain. Examples of current working groups include API design and testing infrastructure.
For activities that well defined and scoped, yet require funding to help bring to fruition, the ISC has established a grant fund. Twice yearly the ISC awards grants for projects such as code development, workshops, infrastructure, and other projects to help sustain the R community.
For community projects of importance to the R community and needing long term support by R Consortium, the project and ISC can consider the project for long term status. This gives the project guaranteed funding for 3 years, along with a voting seat on the ISC. Projects looking for this status will need to justify to the ISC why the project needs long term funding, as well as submit a 3 year plan and budget for consideration. Top level project get priority access to grant funds available.
The goal of the Infrastructure Steering Committee (ISC) is to support projects that, broadly construed, help the R community. This might be software development, developing new teaching materials, documenting best practices, promoting R to new audiences, standardising APIs or doing research.
Voting members of the consist of appointed and elected individuals from Platinum and Silver members of the R Consortium, one individual elected to represent the Silver members of the R Consortium, and the project leads for each top level R Consortium ISC Project.
Current ISC Voting Members
HenrikBengtsson
R Foundation (R Foundation Representative) (ISC Chairperson)
Henrik Bengtsson is an Associated Professor at University of California, San Francisco, a member of the R Foundation, with a background in Computer Science and Mathematical Statistics.
Yanina Bellini Saibene
R-Ladies
MarkBynens
Johnson & Johnson (Silver member)
Mark Bynens, Heading Scientific Computing Operations within Statistics & Decision Sciences at Johnson & Johnson.
Mark Bynens serves as the Director and Head of Scientific Computing Operations (SCO) within the Statistics & Decision Sciences (SDS) sector of Global Development at Johnson & Johnson R&D. With a distinguished career spanning over 19 years in the industry, Mark joined Johnson & Johnson as a full-time employee in 2016. In his pivotal role, he leads his team with dedication and expertise, holding responsibility and accountability for a broad range of critical operations. These include change management, project management, and the comprehensive management of software applications designed for statistical evaluation or business processes.
Mark’s leadership extends to spearheading in-classroom and e-learning education initiatives, fostering knowledge sharing, overseeing software/application acquisition, and managing high-performance computing for in-depth data evaluation, simulations, and statistical research. His team is notably engaged in several R platforms, encompassing both non-HPC and HPC (high-performance computing) environments, where they deliver innovative solutions that significantly benefit the business.
Previously, Mark was the business lead for the custom-built GxP SCE (statistical computing environment) for releases 1 and 2 at Johnson & Johnson. This project involved a custom-built R-ecosystem, containerized to include Shiny publishing capabilities. His contributions to the field are recognized through his role as one of the main authors of the SCE White Paper, underlining his commitment to advancing statistical computing within the pharmaceutical industry. Through his visionary leadership and technical expertise, Mark Bynens continues to drive significant advancements in scientific computing operations at Johnson & Johnson R&D.
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GáborCsárdi
R-Hub Project Lead (Voting member)
MichaelHelbraun
Microsoft (Platinum Member)
Michael Helbraun is a Principal Architect for Data & AI on Microsoft's Digital Transformation Partnership team, where he works with strategic customers across Latin America.
Michael Helbraun is a Principal Architect for Data & AI on Microsoft's Digital Transformation Partnership team, where he works with strategic customers across Latin America. He holds a BS in Geological Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and an MBA focused on Economics and Operations from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
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NicholasMasel
Janssen R&D (Silver member)
EricMilliman
Biogen (Platinum member)
Eric is a data scientist in the Global Analytics and Data Sciences department at Biogen, based in Cambridge, MA.
TobiasHofmann
Roche (Platinum member)
Tobias is a mathematician in the Biostatistics & Data Science Core Lab & Near Patient Care department of Roche Diagnostics Gmbh, based in Mannheim, Germany.
Nan Xiao
Merck (Silver member)
Nan is a statistician from Merck & Co., Inc. working in the Methodology Research group in the Biostatistics and Research Decision Sciences (BARDS) department.
HannahFrick
posit (Platinum Member)
Software engineer on the tidymodels team at Posit. Co-founder of R-Ladies Global and former co-organiser of the London chapter.
