Luigi Marini

I am Lead Research Software Engineer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus. I currently lead the Software Applications and Data Laboratory and have more than 20 years of experience developing advanced software systems for research, mainly through grants from NSF, NIH, industry partners, and private foundations.

While I have had experience leading teams of developers for most of my time at UIUC, in the past 3 years I was tasked with leading a team of research software engineers working across a variety of projects. I took this opportunity to switch from a more informal approach to leadership to a more active engagement. This has led me to take courses like the NSF funded CyberAmbassadors program first, and MGRdev after. MGRdev was groundbreaking for me as it gave me an actionable path forward in improving my leadership skills and supporting my colleagues at all levels. As a coach I hope to give back to the program and its participants as well as to continue to work on my skills.

Throughout my career I have been working closely with software developers and researchers from a wide variety of disciplines. In such a dynamic environment, individual abilities and self reliance are often over emphasized compared to group dynamics and environmental support. I believe that providing a healthy and supportive environment is a requirement for individual abilities to thrive and shine. My personal management quest is to find better ways to encourage a good balance between individual needs, group dynamics and formal processes.