Chris Malek, IS researcher and IT professional

I was born in Queens, New York on June 30, 1969, just a few weeks before the Apollo 11 astronauts stepped out of their spacecraft and into the grey dust of a new world. My parents pointed my face at the TV so that I could see it.

I am an IS researcher focused on human-computer interaction, social learning and information visualization and am studying to complete my Ph.D. at Claremont Graduate University. I am also an IT professional with a decade and a half of experience in UNIX systems administration and applications programming. I am currently the manager of Enterprise UNIX Solutions at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, where my team and I run the central UNIX services for the campus, such as e-mail and authentication.

I currently live in Altadena, California within an easy walk of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where scientists laid the groundwork for the Apollo landings with their Ranger and Surveyor landers.