NSF Names Daniel Atkins to Head New Office of Cyberinfrastructure]

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

-------- 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 () cox net>
To:     David Farber [IP] <dave () farber net>



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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