Ashok Krishnamurthy joined the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) in 2013 and is preparing to launch a new lab in the UNC School of Data and Information Science (SDIS).

He is also a research professor in the Department of Computer Science within the UNC College of Arts and Sciences, co-director of Informatics and Data Science at NC TraCS, a research fellow at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, a member of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, and core faculty in the Carolina Health Informatics Program.

He collaborates with experts in informatics, biomedical, health, and social science research to develop projects and programs that leverage the power of data science and scalable computing to solve challenging research problems.

What brought you to Carolina?

I interviewed at Carolina in 2013 for the RENCI deputy director position when Stan Ahalt — now dean of SDIS — was leading the search. What stood out immediately was the campus-wide vision for RENCI as a true research enabler, especially in health sciences.

The search committee included distinguished faculty from multiple disciplines, and it was clear how much they valued RENCI’s potential to bring people together. The opportunity to collaborate across campus and help build something that could support research was irresistible.

How has your role here changed over the years?

My primary roles at UNC-Chapel Hill have been as deputy director and now director of RENCI, but Carolina’s collaborative nature has opened the door to many additional opportunities. My research has evolved from focusing on technical infrastructure to building programs and partnerships that enable teams to tackle complex, data-driven challenges in health and beyond.

Early on, I focused on developing the foundational methods and systems to make large-scale health data usable for discovery — especially integrating clinical data sources and creating scalable infrastructure for translational research. That work led me to partner closely with NC TraCS to build platforms that help researchers work more effectively with complex clinical data.

My background is in biomedical image processing, and I’m interested in how imaging can advance both biomedical science and clinical applications. In recent years, the rise of large language models has made clinical notes and reports an important research data source. Combining image data and text requires new data and compute infrastructure, and I’ve worked with the School of Medicine and RENCI to help create systems — such as SHIRE, ORDR-D and ASHE — to meet that need.

Today, my research focuses on applying AI to multimodal, real-world health data to drive new discoveries. In many ways, my work has moved from building the “plumbing” of health data systems to shaping how those systems generate meaningful scientific and clinical insights.

At the same time, I’ve taken on faculty roles across campus. Teaching and mentoring PhD students in computer science and health informatics has helped shape both my research and the data infrastructure Carolina needs. As a professor in the School of Data and Information Science, I’ve also been involved in building graduate programs and expanding projects at the intersection of AI, data science, and health.

What’s kept you at Carolina?

In one word: collaboration.

I’ve always been motivated to use AI, data science, and advanced computing to solve problems in human health and the environment. Carolina is an extraordinary place to do that. There are world-class researchers across so many fields who are not only willing to collaborate, but eager to bring you into their work.

That openness creates an environment where ideas emerge naturally — and where you can move quickly from a conversation to a meaningful project. It’s both professionally rewarding and genuinely fun.

What contribution are you most proud of?

I’m particularly proud of our work using AI and data science to address challenges in cancer.

In 2025, we launched a project funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health called the Cancer Identification and Precision Oncology (CIPOC) project, which uses large language models applied to clinical notes to identify critical details about a patient’s cancer journey. The project brings together an interdisciplinary team across RENCI, the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Department of Computer Science, and the schools of Data and Information Science, Public Health, and Medicine.

It also served as the driving use case for SHIRE, a secure cloud platform that allows UNC-Chapel Hill and UNC Health to work with clinical data, including unstructured notes, at scale.

What I’m most proud of is that this work extends beyond a single project. The infrastructure, data resources, and methods we’re building will support research and innovation at Carolina for years to come.

What is a uniquely Carolina experience you’ve had?

How often collaboration happens organically. It’s not unusual to meet someone at a restaurant, on the tennis court, or at a concert and strike up a conversation that turns into a project idea. That happens because of the density of expertise here and the openness of the community. Carolina and Chapel Hill together create an environment where those connections feel natural and where informal conversations can lead to meaningful, impactful work.