[IP] NSF Names Daniel Atkins to Head New Office of Cyberinfrastructure]
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: NSF Names Daniel Atkins to Head New Office of
Cyberinfrastructure
Date: Wed, 08 Feb 2006 18:24:54 -0500
From: Steve Goldstein <steve.goldstein@xxxxxxx>
To: David Farber [IP] <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=105820&org=NSF&from=news
Press Release 06-025
NSF Names Daniel Atkins to Head New Office of Cyberinfrastructure
Daniel Atkins
Daniel Atkins
Credit and Larger Version
February 8, 2006
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has named distinguished computer
scientist Dr. Daniel E. Atkins to head its newly created Office of
Cyberinfrastructure.
Dr. Atkins, a professor in the School of Information and in the
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, has made major contributions to high-performance
computer architecture, and led or participated in the design and
construction of seven experimental machines including some of the
earliest parallel computers.
He developed high-speed arithmetic algorithms now widely used in the
computer industry, conducted pioneering work on special-purpose
architecture including collaboration with the Mayo Clinic on development
of computer-assisted tomography (CAT), and chaired the committee at
Michigan that developed one of the earliest computer engineering
undergraduate degree programs. More recently his research has focused on
the social and technical architecture of distributed knowledge communities.
Dr. Atkins will join NSF on June 5 as Director of the Office of
Cyberinfrastructure (OCI), which has a Fiscal Year 2006 budget of $127
million. The President's budget request for OCI in FY2007 calls for
$182.42 million--an increase of $55.3 million, or 43.5%.
Created in June of 2005, OCI makes competitive, merit-reviewed awards
for leading-edge, IT-based infrastructure increasingly essential to
science and engineering leadership in the 21st century.
Cyberinfrastructure includes supercomputers, data management systems,
high capacity networks, digitally-enabled observatories and scientific
instruments, and an interoperable suite of software and middleware
services and tools for computation, visualization, and collaboration.
The OCI will work closely with all offices and directorates of the NSF
to realize the Foundation's emerging Vision for 21st Century Discovery
(http://www.nsf.gov/od/oci/ci_v5.pdf).
"I cannot imagine a more ideal choice for this critical position at this
critical time," said NSF Director Dr. Arden L. Bement, Jr. "Not only
does Dan have unparalleled leadership experience and a strong vision,
but he is already very familiar with the Foundation, its programs and
policies."
Dr. Atkins served as Chair of NSF's Blue-Ribbon Advisory Panel on
Cyberinfrastructure. In early 2003, the panel issued a highly
influential report, titled Revolutionizing Science and Engineering
Through Cyberinfrastructure, that recommends a major program in
cyberinfrastructure-enhanced science and engineering research and allied
education for the nation under the leadership of NSF. In addition, Dr.
Atkins was director of the NSF EXPRES Project that laid the foundation
for NSF's FASTLANE system of all-electronic proposal submission and
management.
As computer and communication systems merged in the early 1980's, Dr.
Atkins shifted his focus from traditional computer architecture to the
technical and social architecture of distributed knowledge communities.
He was co-founder of an interdisciplinary research group of social and
computer science faculty at UM who were pioneers in the area of
computer-supported cooperative work and related topics in human-computer
interaction.
Dr. Atkins has been project director for several large interdisciplinary
NSF-sponsored projects to develop principles for the design and
evaluation of IT-enabled scientific "collaboratories," or "centers
without walls" in which researchers can perform their research without
regard to physical location, interacting with colleagues, accessing
instrumentation, sharing data and computational resources, and accessing
information and data in digital libraries and repositories. These
flagship collaboratory projects, primarily focusing on atmospheric and
space science, also included outreach to middle and high school science
education and helped create the conditions for the current
cyberinfrastructure/e-science movement in support of both research and
education.
In addition, Dr. Atkins led workshops to develop the NSF Digital Library
Initiative including joint programs with the European Commission and
later became project director of the UM Digital Library Project. He
helped pilot the Mellon Foundation sponsored JSTOR Project
(www.jstor.org) now in wide use in academic libraries. These projects
laid the foundation for UM leadership in digital library production
activities.
In 1992, Dr. Atkins became the founding Dean of the University of
Michigan School of Information (www.si.umich.edu). This professional
graduate school (M.S. and Ph.D.) is committed to learning, research and
societal engagement through a combined social-humanistic-technical
approach to "bringing people, information and technology together in
more valuable ways." He had previously served as Associate Dean for
Research for the UM College of Engineering.
Dr. Atkins, who earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science and an M.S. in
Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign, and a B.S.E.E. from Bucknell University, will join NSF
management under the provisions of the Intergovernmental Personnel Act,
and will retain his academic position at the University of Michigan.
-NSF-
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