Chieh-Li (Julian) Chin, research program manager at the iSchool, has received the Employee Excellence Team Player award from Technology Services, where she serves as a data analyst at the Data and Technology Innovation Team. She received the award for exemplifying "the essence of teamwork and collaboration" internally, across Technology Services teams and in the campus community.
Her letter of nomination states, "Julian is one of those rare IT pros who excels as both a technical lead and as a supporting team member. She is one of the technical leads on the AII COVID Tests (ACT) data pipeline, which is the primary technical system for intaking COVID-19 testing results from the VDL [Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory] and analyzing and pushing results to downstream applications that depend on the pipeline for operational purposes. To ensure this system works, Julian has worked countless nights and weekends (as well as her days, of course!) to build, troubleshoot, and refine."
Chin's positive nature and encouragement for her IT teammates also was noted in the nomination.
"Julian has always been a great teammate, but she took those skills to the next level in her work on our COVID teams," said Nick Vance, assistant director for data innovation at Technology Services. "We would not be able to accomplish what we did without her willingness to help anyone that needed her and her consistent positive attitude through some very stressful projects."
Chin serves as a research program manager at the iSchool, working with multiple faculty members. She holds an MS/LIS from the iSchool as well as an MS in computer science and BS in business administration. She is currently pursuing her PhD in informatics at Illinois.
"I feel very honored and humbled to receive this award," said Chin. "I am glad that Technology Services values my work. I am so fortunate to have the opportunity to work with the wonderful team and make contributions to our community."