This post is part of our Curators’ Corner series. Every so often we’ll feature a different DCN Curator. The series grew out of a community-building activity wherein curators at our partner organizations interview each other “chain-letter style” in order to get to know each other and their work outside of the DCN better. We hope you enjoy these posts!
Chasz Griego is a Librarian for Chemistry, Chemical Engineering & Materials Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University Libraries. Chasz was interviewed by Henrik Spoon in May 2026.
Henrik: How did you come to your current position?
Chasz: I guess this might be a long story just to start with. My background was originally in chemical engineering, so I got my bachelor’s degree in that. And then I moved here to Pittsburgh to get a PhD in chemical engineering [at the University of Pittsburgh]. I was more focused on the computational side of that research, and it was kind of a blend of computational chemistry methods, thinking about materials, but also applications in chemical engineering. My dissertation was thinking about a certain method to help make computational studies more efficient. A big part of things that I produced and arranged in my dissertation were guides or tutorials for putting data together and trying to make it really easy for people to understand what I’m doing and also reproduce it. That was one angle that I really liked during my PhD and then the rest of it was a little questionable.
When I graduated, I wanted to stay in Pittsburgh, but I didn’t necessarily want to continue down the traditional academic route where it was like a research postdoc and then maybe trying to become research faculty somewhere. And so as I was looking for things, I saw Carnegie Mellon libraries had an open position for an open science postdoc. When I was reading the description, it lined up with a lot of these things I’d been doing on the side with my dissertation, just thinking about opening up research, enhancing reproducibility and promoting advocacy of open science and those best practices in research. So I got that role and that’s when I learned about librarianship in general, and I was really fascinated by it.
I had worked with a data librarian when I was in grad school and thought that was a really interesting role. I really like trying to help teach others about best practices when doing their research and [I enjoy] the community and the people. And fortunately enough, after the first year of my postdoc, they [Carnegie Mellon] had an opening for a STEM librarian. And a lot of the departments that needed a focused liaison were aligned with my background (chemical engineering, chemistry, and material science). I got lucky in a lot of ways since that opportunity came up. They were still looking for candidates, and I think just with the advantage that I had, getting integrated into their libraries, it was a really great fit. And so I’ve been doing that since the summer of 2023. [I’m] still relatively new, but it feels like I’ve been around a while now and done quite a bit.
Henrik: I also came from science into librarianship and I definitely feel that the last seven years or so, I’ve been learning constantly more about librarianship, all the things that were never taught to me. So, yes, I can see after almost 3 years where you must be at with making your inroads into librarianship.
Chasz: Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, the normal research route, it was like, I don’t know if I’ll have a lot of good ideas. And then [along comes] librarianship, where it’s like, yeah, I have tons of great ideas that I’m really excited about! It’s kind of almost too much.
Henrik: And you know what graduate students are going through, what they need to hear, and what they don’t need to hear from the library.
Henrik: How many classes are you showing up in during the year?
Chasz: Well, I kind of show up for, you know, I have my 3 departments, so I show up to each of their orientations and try to make the most of that time, which is very little, but then, I get one class each semester for students to come in [where I] either give a bigger overview or maybe like a ‘research’ or a ‘searching literature’ overview or something a little more specialized. Like, I got to go to a chemical engineering class and talk about data and code.
Henrik: Yeah. And do you also offer things like classes or trainings? Or is it… Do you mostly hide behind your guides and web pages or are you trying to be out there [in front of students]?
Chasz: Yeah, I do. I do teach some workshops, and I’ve been trying to get my rotating schedule to a point that’s most ideal for me. So I do teach a lot about Python for data science. That’s kind of a big thing that I’m really trying to promote is just learning it [Python] and doing best practices. I have gotten better at making my guides maybe a little more useful than they used to be because when I’m in those orientation sessions, it’s like, you might not listen to any of this that I’m saying right now– So here’s the guide to look up at your own convenience. Honestly, outreach is kind of a big thing that I’ve been trying to think about a little bit more too.
Henrik: What do you do? Is there more to your library work outside of the outreach to these departments? Do you have other tasks as well?
Chasz: Yeah, going back to the open science thing, we have a big group with a big focus on that or just open research/scholarship in general. And so, I work a lot with my colleagues in that area. There’s also events and things like that. I try to put together hackathons around reproducibility. We also have a data and code support service, so that’s on top of our regular consultation time that we set up. We try to make some time dedicated for people who need help with a certain tool or something and we provide a list of people that they can work with. I guess also aside from that, I also have a big service role/appointment. Myself and another faculty member co-lead inclusivity efforts among the units our dean oversees. That effort has been a big part of my role too. We’ve been focusing a lot on how these units can help build community.
Henrik: Are you involved in selector tasks, such as journal payments, journal selections, book selection?
Chasz: Yeah, it’s mostly on ‘as requested’ basis. So sometimes, students can’t access a paper and a journal and I see if it’s worth subscribing to that journal or just take the ILL route. Sometimes there’s book requests, but that may only be acquiring one e-book from time to time. I also technically oversee this very small kind of hidden special collection of material science books on steel because someone, who is a well-known alumni, donated a lot of money and has a building named after him. He donated his collection and I am, I suppose, a gatekeeper to that collection, where if someone wants to borrow something from it, they have to reach out to me so I can at least get the key and walk them over there to help them get it. I could try to curate it a little more– I’ve added a couple items to it, but it’s kind of a snapshot in time.
Henrik: So how much of your job involves data curation?
Chasz: Not as much as, I’d like! I feel like a lot of the very straightforward data curation I do actually happens through DCN. Whenever they [the DCN] reach out to me about grabbing a dataset that might be related in my fields, I’m always pretty eager to do it, as long as I have the time. I’ve found that it’s a really rewarding task because you’re actually really getting into [the data]. I guess I’ll also say that, aside from here and there, I’ll also help a student or a researcher answer questions about organizing their code or their data. If someone’s trying to deposit in our repository, I’ll teach them about preparing their readme and stuff like that. It doesn’t happen too often, and it’s funny because the most recent data set I curated was one that I created to accompany a paper I just published. And it was funny because it was kind of like going on the other side of the data curation process I do for the DCN. So, that was also fun.
Henrik: Do you have colleagues who do the day-to-day curation?
Chasz: Yeah, so my colleague Alfredo, he’s our liaison to DCN and he’s our research data librarian. So he does [curation] a lot more frequently. I’d also say through our data in code support, some of my other colleagues might also get similar requests like I do.
Henrik: So this is a good point to ask you then, why is data curation important to you?
Chasz: It’s a great segue. I think a lot about this one, even going back to when I was in grad school and really deep into my technical research. There’s always a big emphasis of scientific research being on the published manuscript. And sure, that kind of tells you what the research is, what was investigated, what was accomplished. But sometimes the how, like the methods or materials, can be kind of hit or miss. And most of the time a lot of researchers need to know the what, sure. They need to know what was found, what’s going on and if they’re trying to learn about a field they need to know that information. But there are also times they might be going into literature to figure out the how, which is [an issue] that I ran into a lot. In grad school, I was trying to use a model for different kinds of material systems. And in theory, many of these other groups have done these calculations or produced this data before. It’d be much easier for me to go and find how they did it or see the data that they produced. [Data curation] helps ensure that the data is even being shared in the first place. And then the other things curation tells you is the how of the data, how to interpret it, how to use it, how it was used, and how do it may work with accompanying code.
Henrik: Yeah, I’ve also, when I’m looking at astronomy data, [I’m looking for] how people have dealt with the raw CCD images of a spectrum or an image of a galaxy. Yeah, you have the raw data, but how did you get to the final polished product? That is also the reproducibility step, especially if you want to replicate what somebody else has learned. So I can see your point right there.
Chasz: Yeah, in the computational chemistry area, a big thing too was if people ran calculations on some system, maybe sometimes they would share just the output file from the code. And then sometimes it’s like, ‘okay, well, did you parse the important information from it? How did you organize it?’ Always a lot of headaches dealing with the different ways that information is shared.
Henrik: If you weren’t doing data curation, what would you be doing?
Chasz: Sometimes I do wonder if it would be useful to try to steer into that area of like videos, like short form videos with tips about research or tips about data organization, reproducibility, or maybe even just kind of good science communication or tips for academic research. But that is not something that I’m doing because I feel like that’s a big learning curve. It can also be kind of turbulent and controversial in some ways making content for students and stuff to interact with. Essentially, if I wasn’t doing a lot of the other things I’m doing, I’d be interested to see if that would be worth my time. Being from Pittsburgh, I’ve always a big fan of Mr. Rogers, who made the children’s program, and his whole motivation was ‘TV’s not going away, so I want to try to make something that’s better for children than the alternative.’ And so sometimes it’s the same approach of social media and stuff like this is not going away– if all that stuff’s going to be out there, can we try to put out some good informational stuff, to see if it [makes an impact]. It is a lot harder these days, but it’s always worth thinking about.
Henrik: Yeah, when you think of “meeting the students where they are”, for some at least 5 years ago, clicking on a 30-second video, might be exactly what they need to get the answer to [a question or problem]. And now they might be going to AI and ask AI ‘how do I do this step?’ And we have to figure out, again, where we are, in all of this, where we are needed with providing information.
Chasz: Yeah, totally. That’s something I’m starting to think about now. So I think it might be something I’m seeing where I can help. Seeing how to help teach students how to use [AI] to make, like not so much make yourself more productive, or make yourself more efficient, but more so doing these really challenging things. How can we utilize this technology to help [research] be more rewarding or just less tedious and maybe give more room for creativity and problem solving? But yeah, in another 5 years, it might also be a lot different from now too.
Henrik: This isn’t a question on the list: could you ever imagine data curation being outsourced to AI?
Chasz: It’s really interesting that you ask that because I’ve played around with this a little bit, and I’m always curious what the greater DCN community would feel about this. I was trying to make one of those agents where I’ve given it the template of my documentation when I curate data and then I’ve given it the documentation of the CURATE(D) steps. For me, sometimes what was really hard was typing up all kinds of frantic notes and then having to go back and -one, organize them and then interpret or translate what I’ve written down to the recommendations for the data creator. So sometimes I play with that, to see if I can just have a personal chat bot where I can type my thoughts and responses to what I’m looking at with the data, and then have it clean up for me so that it’s a little easier for me to just figure out the recommendations that make most sense. But I do get a little worried that it could go a step further, and I also still have those reservations about it, if there’s not enough known context around where the data is from or the field or, maybe it’s an intersection of different fields. Maybe AI is really good at picking up missing comments or missing formatting, but when it comes to some of the more contextual stuff, I think, and I hope, that data curators will still play an important role.
Henrik: Yeah. Because it’s so specialized. Let me switch to questions about your life outside of the office. What is your favorite cuisine?
Chasz: Yeah, this was one of these that I had to take a second with myself and think about, like, do I have an answer to this? And then after a few seconds, it’s like, yeah, of course I do. I’m originally from the state of New Mexico, and so I’ve always been just a big fan of New Mexican food in general, or I guess you’d call it Tex-Mex food. It’s burritos, enchiladas, tamales, with a little more emphasis on cheese and red, greasy meats, not so much on the healthy side. It’s really good the way they make it back there and there’s always the question about, ‘are you gonna put red chile or green chile on top of your dishes or are you gonna put both?’ And anytime I can, I’m getting both on everything. When my wife and I are visiting New Mexico, we joke like, we need to be eating more vegetables because [they’re sometimes an after-thought with this cuisine]. There’s some beans here or there, but that’s it.
Henrik: So for the Tex Mex food, you really want to go to New Mexico?
Chasz: Yeah, there hasn’t really been too much in Pittsburgh I’ve found. There have been a couple of places that are like, straight up Tex-Mex, but it’s sometimes hard to get to or a little inconvenient. So when I’m at home in Pittsburgh I eat other stuff, and then when I go to New Mexico I eat all the Tex Mex I can.
Henrik: So what else do you like to do outside of work?
Chasz: So I’m really into music and this was kind of earlier in my professional career, more in grad school, but I’ve played guitar for a long time, so I used to play in a couple of bands. A lot more when I was younger, but then during grad school, I played in one from then through my first years as a librarian. But I kind of found that the effort and reward ratio was a little off, and so I stepped away from that but I still listen to music all the time. Sometimes I play guitar here or there, but I kind of settled into other kinds of hobbies. I’m watching TV, movies, and playing video games– but when I moved into a house, I got involved in the model train hobby. I always joke that I went from younger hobbies to older hobbies. I do some volunteering at a maker space, and so I’ve learned about 3D printing and building circuits and stuff like that. And I found that picking up this hobby has really complemented [maker skills] very well because I get to explore the stem side of it, trying to create things with this technology. You’re running trains on circuits and so there’s that aspect to it, but then there’s also the more tactile, artistic aspect of it where you can actually try to make scenes and models. And I found that that’s really relaxing. For a long time, I tried to look for the tactile artistic outlet that I could do that’s not related to technology or screens or anything. So that’s been a really great way for me to clear my head and more people are learning about this hobby through me and I’m also meeting people that have connections in this hobby. I recently inherited this massive collection of Baltimore and Ohio trains from someone who passed away. And now it’s bleeding into my data interests because I have way more trains than I’d ever want to have. And so I need to figure out how to sell some or donate some. So now I’m going through all of them and cataloguing them, figuring out the brands, the models, the market prices, making a big spreadsheet to figure out, ‘should I sell these on eBay? Should I sell these somewhere else’? There’s been a lot of different angles with [the model train hobby] so it’s been fun.
Henrik: Right, right. I’m from the Netherlands. I used to have a Märklin train (a German brand). They had a lot of stuff to offer in their catalogs that weren’t just German models. They looked good too!
Chasz: Yeah, and that’s the thing, like, going through this collection that I inherited, I think I’m learning a lot more about some of the American companies and going into European companies, I’m sure that’s just a much bigger space that would be really interesting to dive into.
Henrik: What’s your favorite city?
Chasz: Yeah, this one was fun to prepare because I kind of have 3 answers. The very biased and kind of very lame answer is Pittsburgh because I’ve just grown to appreciate a lot of it and there’s so much character and different culture and it’s very unique. I feel like I’m thinking more of like in the US, but my other answer, one city that should be my favorite, but I just haven’t experienced it enough is New Orleans. I’ve only visited once, but it was a really great first trip. I know [New Orleans] has so much more to offer, but I haven’t experienced it yet, so I don’t think I can necessarily say it’s my favorite. But I think another of my most favorite and appreciated cities in the United States is Chicago. One big factor is that me and my wife both enjoy going there. We’re actually going to go again in a couple weeks. I feel, like Pittsburgh, there’s a lot of character, culture, history and architecture. So I think the short answer is Chicago, but I have to also mention the others.
Henrik: And how often do you manage to get there?
Chasz: In a couple of weeks, this will be my 4th time going to Chicago. I got to go there for the first time for a conference and it completely swept me off my feet. And then, I got to go with one of the bands I was playing in to actually play there. And so that was a really interesting experience. And then my wife and I got to take a vacation and it just really worked out well for us, and so we found a reason to go again. And I’m hoping that I can just keep going [back] for other reasons as well. Along with also [hopefully] going back to New Orleans.
Henrik: So would then the answer to the last official question be where would you most like to travel next? Chicago, New Orleans or do you have other dreams?
Chasz: I’d love to go to Europe with my wife and do a tour throughout Europe via trains. I’m thinking more of the actual life-size trains when I’m thinking about Europe just to explore. I’ve only been to Europe once. I went to Geneva, Switzerland, and I thought that was really great, but there’s so much more. My wife and I also want to see and travel throughout the UK.
