The founding dean of the School of Information (SI) now is its first endowed professor.
In March the Board of Regents named Daniel Atkins the Kellogg Professor in Community Information. The endowed professorship, a first for the school, was established by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek through a $2-million gift.
Atkins is on leave, serving as director of the National Science Foundation Office of Cyberinfrastructure, where he promotes the development of supercomputers, information management systems and high-capacity networks throughout the nation. He will return to U-M in the fall.
“This honor is a tribute to Professor Atkins’ lifelong commitment to empowering communities through the strength of global computing,” says SI Dean Martha Pollack. “During his career, he has established an international reputation for enabling communities of all kinds — from space scientists to local nonprofit organizations — to work and share common resources regardless of their geographic location.”
Atkins helped establish the renowned Internet Public Library, as well as a virtual library for 30 Native American tribal colleges. He also served as project director for several large interdisciplinary National Science Foundation-sponsored projects to develop IT-enabled “laboratories without walls.”
Atkins has been at U-M since 1971 as a faculty member in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). He was the founding dean of SI from 1992-1998. He still has a joint appointment in EECS.
