Michael Pazzani named VP for research and graduate and professional education
Archived article from Sep 26, 2005
By Joseph Blumberg
Michael J. Pazzani of the National Science Foundation will become vice president for research and graduate and professional education Oct.1, 2005. He succeeds James Flanagan, who retired as vice president for research in September 2004.
At the NSF, Pazzani is director of the Information and Intelligent Systems Division in the Directorate of Computer and Information Science and Engineering. He also serves as an ex officio member on the board of regents of the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health.
“Michael Pazzani is a highly respected researcher whose career has been devoted to teaching, research and service at the highest levels,” said President Richard L. McCormick. “He will be a leader who can energize research efforts at the university and a strong voice for graduate education. His experience and enthusiasm will serve us well as we continue to expand the frontiers of knowledge.”
Pazzani is a professor of information and computer science at the University of California, Irvine and will be appointed to the rank of Professor II, with tenure, in Rutgers’ department of computer science, Faculty of Arts and Sciences-New Brunswick.
“His faculty appointment within the department of computer science provides appropriate and visible recognition of his accomplishments and prominent stature in the field of computer science,” said Philip Furmanski, Rutgers’ executive vice president for academic affairs. “It opens the door for students to interact directly with Professor Pazzani, a process that is the very essence of a research university.”
Raised in New Jersey, Pazzani now resides in Arlington, Va., with his wife, Christine, a court reporter. They have two children: Lynn, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in criminology at the University of California, Irvine, and Karen, who is enrolled at the UCLA School of Law.
“I am looking forward to joining the Rutgers community – working with the administration, faculty and students and, particularly, in facilitating research activities in conjunction with corporate, foundation, state and federal sponsors,” Pazzani said.
A 1980 graduate of the University of Connecticut in computer engineering, Pazzani
earned his doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1987 and joined the faculty of the University of California, Irvine. Since 1983, Pazzani has authored or co-authored more than 170 technical papers, books, chapters and presentations in the areas of machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Pazzani is a creative and productive researcher with a strong grant record that includes funding from NSF, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the U.S. Department of Education. He is an elected fellow of the American Association
of Artificial Intelligence.
He has served on the board of directors of Combichem, a publicly traded company involved in computational drug discovery, and the scientific advisory board of several companies, including Pharsight, that enable improvements in the clinical development of therapeutic products.
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