My name is John Fitzpatrick, and my job is to help Yale’s research community learn about and use Yale’s technological resources.

I started working in ITS in 2007 after a six-year stint as a postdoc in the Department of Neurobiology, so I'm familiar with the culture, the pressures, and the challenges of doing world class research at Yale. The technical challenges I faced when trying to do research are probably a lot like the ones that you face. I’ve had to come up with a backup plan after a hard drive died and I lost work. I’ve had to figure out how to synchronize files between my work computer and my home computer. I lost a couple of days when my machine told me that I had an “invalid sibling link” and I had to google for hours to figure out that yes I really did need to reformat the hard drive. And I’ve resented all the time I’ve spent on these and many other things because they took me away from the research that fascinated me and challenged me and filled me with wonder.

Our hope here at Academic Media & Technology is that through my presence we’ll take some of the IT burden off your shoulders so that you can spend more of your energy on your research. We hope that you'll give me a call or send me an email if you find yourself fighting with your computer instead of doing the work you love, because I’m here to help.