Newswise — Peter Nelson, an expert in artificial intelligence, has been named dean of the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Engineering, UIC Provost R. Michael Tanner announced today. The appointment is effective July 28, pending approval by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees.
Nelson, a professor of computer science at UIC and the department's former head, has served as interim dean of engineering since last August.
"Out of a nationwide field of strong candidates, Pete was the clear choice," said Tanner. "He has demonstrated administrative and intellectual leadership and is a significant researcher with a record of attracting over $15 million in grants on issues of importance like computer-enhanced transportation systems, manufacturing and design optimization and bioinformatics. He understands Chicago and its needs, has a firm grasp of the trajectory of engineering, and has had interactions with the business community that will prove essential to advancing the College."
"I am excited to lead the College of Engineering, its internationally recognized faculty and our outstanding students," Nelson said.
"Engineering education and research is critically dependent on partnerships with industry and government, and we will continue to capitalize on our strategic location. A high priority will be to increase our collaborations with UIC's College of Medicine and other outstanding health science colleges."
Nelson's research interests span a broad interdisciplinary spectrum. In 1991, he founded UIC's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, which specializes in applied intelligence systems projects in fields such as transportation, manufacturing, bioinformatics and e-mail spam countermeasures. In 1994-95, his laboratory, sponsored by the Illinois Department of Transportation, developed the first real-time traffic congestion map on the World Wide Web. It now receives over 500-million hits a year.
Projects carried out at Nelson's laboratory have been funded by organizations such as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Argonne National Laboratory and Motorola, among numerous other corporations.
In 2006-07, Nelson served as one of the seven founding members of the joint UIC-University of Chicago-Northwestern University Chicago Biomedical Consortium Proteomics and Informatics Scientific Board.
Nelson joined UIC's department of electrical engineering and computer science in 1988 as an assistant professor and rose to the rank of full professor in 2000. He was named head of computer science when electrical and computer engineering split off into a separate department in 2001, and he remained in that position until assuming the interim dean appointment.
Nelson received his B.A. in computer science and mathematics from North Park College in Chicago and earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from Northwestern University.
He replaces Prith Banerjee, who went to Hewlett Packard last year as senior vice president for research and head of HP Labs.
The UIC College of Engineering grants bachelors', masters' and Ph.D. degrees from six academic departments. More than 2,650 students receive instruction in the college's state-of-the-art research facilities at its West Loop Chicago campus. The college's 113 faculty members include two National Academy of Engineering members, 43 professional society fellows and several others who have won top research awards and grants.
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