Steve Reichenbach, winner of a 2015 Innovation, Development and Engagement Award from NU, likes to solve problems, in research and in business.
“Computer science is the science of solving problems and starting a business is a little bit like that. You’re solving the problem of how to make and deliver something that people want to them,” he said. “And there’s a lot of challenges in doing that.”
Reichenbach serves as a role model for colleagues interested in pursuing collaborative research or developing university-based spin-off companies. Graduate students supervised by Reichenbach have accepted position in government, academia and at leading companies like Microsoft, Apple and Google.
He is president of GC Image, a software company that helps visualize compound mixtures that is a spin-off from work begun at UNL. The technology based on Reichenbach’s research can be used to analyze everything from blood found at a crime scene to pollutants in air or water.
“We try to solve problems with new algorithms, new methods of solution that provide people with solutions to problems,” he said. “So in that sense, it’s still closely tied to my research activity.”
With GC Image, Reichenbach has touched the lives of customers around the world. In the future, Reichenbach hopes to be solving problems at Nebraska Innovation Campus.
“There will be a lot of exciting things going on there and I think that computer scientists can help with problems across the board, whether they’re in food science or agriculture or agronomy,” he said.
