Thomas Finholt to serve as interim School of Information dean

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Thomas A. Finholt, professor and associate dean in the School of Information, will serve as interim dean of the school beginning Aug. 1.

His appointment, approved Thursday by the Board of Regents, runs through June 30, 2016. Finholt will serve in place of Dean Jeffrey MacKie-Mason, who leaves the university to become University Librarian at the University of California, Berkeley.

Thomas Finholt

In making her recommendation, Provost Martha Pollack said of Finholt, “With his years of experience as a faculty member and his knowledge of the School of Information gained through a number of administrative appointments including acting dean, I am confident that the school will maintain its momentum during this interim period.”

In addition to being a professor of information, Finholt is the senior associate dean for academic affairs. His previous roles in SI include associate dean for research and innovation (2006-10), senior associate dean for faculty (2010-12) and acting dean (2013).

“I look forward to taking up the responsibilities of this appointment,” Finholt said. “The future of the School of Information has never looked brighter. I anticipate working with the university leadership and our faculty, staff and students to maintain our upward trajectory while the search for a new dean is underway.” 

Finholt received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Swarthmore College and a doctorate in social and decision sciences from Carnegie Mellon University.  Prior to completing his Ph.D., he had a graduate research fellowship at the National Science Foundation. 

His research focuses on the energy costs of forming and maintaining social ties, the computational mediation of trust in virtual organizations and the use of ultra-resolution collaboration environments.

An NSF grant funded his research on how different communication technologies are used in social networks and how energy use accumulates in technical networks that support relationships. 

Since 1992, Finholt has been the principal investigator on grants totaling more than $8 million, and a co-principal investigator on grants totaling more than $9 million, predominantly from NSF. Finholt has co-authored some 50 refereed articles, chapters and conference proceedings. 

The Provost’s Office will launch a national search for the next leader of the School of Information this summer. 

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