A portrait of a strapping young scientist at Oak Ridge National Lab.

Tyler J Skluzacek

Research Scientist, Data Lifecycle and Scalable Workflows Group

Tyler is a computer scientist who works at the intersection of scientific data management and large-scale workflows. Specifically, he is interested in exploring ways to bolster scientists’ collective ability to both process and navigate heterogeneous science data repositories, particularly through automated metadata extraction methods. During his thesis work, Tyler holistically explored automated metadata extraction from its fundamental underpinnings (what are data, metadata, and the desired connections between them), to the creation of the scalable, decentralized Xtract metadata extraction system, to automatically and manually quantifying the research value gained by scientists who use such a system. Thus far, Xtract has processed over 1PB of data spanning batteries, climate, computer science, materials, and spectroscopy. While at ORNL, Tyler wants to explore methods to automatically index the workflows used to generate data, in addition to the data themselves.

Recently, Tyler received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Chicago. He completed his bachelor’s in applied mathematics and statistics from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN. Previously, Tyler interned at IBM Research and created an application called Nightware that monitors and treats traumatic nightmare symptoms in patients with PTSD.

In his spare time, Tyler enjoys playing the violin, mentoring students, and traveling with his wife Lauren and newborn baby Jack. Tyler is also confident that his hometown Minnesota Vikings will finally win the Super Bowl in 2023.

If you are a scientist with an exciting (and perhaps disorganized) data repository, please do not hesitate to contact me!