Dr. Ilya Baldin came to the United States in 1991 after 2 years at Moscow State University (in the then-Soviet Union). He received his B.S. in Computer Science from the Illinois Institute of Technology before coming to NC State to pursue his graduate studies. He graduated from NC State University in 1995 with an MS and in 1998 with a PhD in Computer Science. Originally focused on Computer Graphics, he switched interests to network optimization problems. As part of his MS Thesis, he, together with his advisor Dr. George Rouskas, identified and proved NP Completeness of a problem of creating multicast routing topologies. His PhD dissertation focused on optimizations of broadcast optical networks and Markov processes. After attaining his PhD, he began his career at MCNC as a Research Scientist, then Senior Scientist, developing novel hardware/software prototype systems and protocols for DARPA. In 2008 he joined RENCI Institute at UNC Chapel Hill, where he is the Director for Network Research and Infrastructure Group. His team of 12 researchers focuses on developing and running complex distributed infrastructure systems to address science problems – supporting distributed data movement, processing, and storage. During his tenure at RENCI he has generated more than $35M in federal funding from the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy and DARPA. As Co-PI for the ExoGENI testbed, he helped develop a world-wide edge cloud that allowed researchers to create on-demand complex experimental topologies to help study novel distributed applications and protocols. In its almost 10 years of operation, ExoGENI engaged thousands of unique users - who have jointly launched nearly 100,000 experiments on the testbed over its lifetime. He is the PI and Project Director for FABRIC – a $20M investment funded by the National Science Foundation in 2019 to build a unique scientific instrument to help Computer Science researchers reimagine the new Internet. FABRIC is a nationwide testbed comprised of novel programmable network elements equipped with large amounts of diverse compute and storage capabilities, interconnected by 100G and Terabit dedicated optical links. When completed in 2023, FABRIC will connect multiple specialized testbeds (5G/IoT PAWR, NSF Clouds) and high-performance computing facilities at many universities to create a rich fabric for a wide variety of experimental activities. FABRIC-based research is expected to pave the way for a new wave of innovation in Internet architecture, protocols, and distributed applications. Dr. Baldin has authored over 100 scientific publications, several book chapters and one patent. He is a Senior Member of IEEE.