Daniel E. Atkins III is the W. K. Kellogg Professor of

Community Informatics Community informatics (CI) is an interdisciplinary field that is concerned with using Information and communications technology, information and communication technology (ICT) to empower members of communities and support their social, cultural ...

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

. He is also a professor of Information at the

University of Michigan School of Information The University of Michigan School of Information (UMSI or iSchool) is the informatics and information science school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It offers baccalaureate, magisterial, and ...

and a professor of both

Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

and

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

in the College of Engineering. From June 2006 to June 2008, he was the inaugural Director of the Office of Cyberinfrastructure at the

U.S. National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is ...

. From July 2008 to June 2012, he was Associate Vice President for Research Cyberinfrastructure and Chairman of the U of Michigan Information Technology Governance Council. Atkins was elected to the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

in 2014 for leadership in the development of radix algorithms and cybertechnical collaborative systems.

Biography

Atkins holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from

Bucknell University Bucknell University is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal-arts college in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1846 as the University at Lewisburg, it now consists of the College of Arts a ...

(1965), an M.S. in

from the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

(1967), and a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

, also from Illinois (1970).

Professional Interests

Atkins specializes in high-performance computer architecture. He participated in the design and building of seven major experimental machines, including some of the earliest

parallel computers Parallel computing is a type of computation in which many calculations or processes are carried out simultaneously. Large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which can then be solved at the same time. There are several different for ...

. He conducted pioneering work on special-purpose architecture and collaborated with the

Mayo Clinic Mayo Clinic () is a Nonprofit organization, private American Academic health science centre, academic Medical centers in the United States, medical center focused on integrated health care, healthcare, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science ...

on development of Computer-Assisted Tomography (CAT). He later concentrated on the social and technical architecture of distributed knowledge communities and community informatics. He led workshops to develop the National Science Foundation (NSF) Digital Library Initiative], which included joint programs with the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

. He was the project director of the niversity of Michigan Digital Library Project and helped to pilot the Mellon Foundation’s JSTOR Project.

Academic career

In 1982 Atkins became associate dean for research and graduate programs for the University of Michigan College of Engineering, and then Dean from 1989 to 1990. He was appointed

Dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean * Dean Sw ...

of the

in 1992. He secured millions in support from the

Kellogg Foundation The W. K. Kellogg Foundation was founded in June 1930 as the W. K. Kellogg Child Welfare Foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer Will Keith Kellogg. In 1934, Kellogg donated more than $66 million in Kellogg Company stock and other investments to ...

Mellon Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, commonly known as the Mellon Foundation, is a New York City-based private foundation with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the product of the 1969 merger ...

, Carnegie Foundation,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

, and others to help launch the school, and chaired the committee that developed one of the earliest computer engineering undergraduate degree programs. In 1989-90 he formed and directed an Alliance for Community Technology (ACT) sponsored by the Kellogg Foundation to support the use of information technology,

Cyberinfrastructure

Atkins served as chair of the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

’s Blue-Ribbon Advisory Panel on

Cyberinfrastructure United States federal government agencies use the term cyberinfrastructure to describe research environments that support advanced data acquisition, data storage, data management, data integration, data mining, data visualization and other computin ...

. In 2003 this panel released the influential report ''Revolutionizing Science and Engineering Through Cyberinfrastructure'', which recommended that the NSF form a program in cyberinfrastructure-enhanced science and engineering research. The report has been cited over 700 times. He was also the director of the NSF EXPRES Project that laid the foundation for NSF's FASTLANE all-electronic proposal submission and management system. In 2002, Atkins co-authored (with

James Duderstadt James Johnson Duderstadt (December 5, 1942 – August 21, 2024) was an American academic administrator who served as the 11th President of the University of Michigan from 1988 to 1996. Duderstadt was elected a member of the National Academy of ...

and Doug Van Houweling) the book ''Higher Education in the Digital Age: Technology Issues and Strategies for American Colleges and Universities''. He served as chair of a Scientific Advisory Committee for the Digital Media and Learning program for the

MacArthur Foundation The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 117 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.6 billion and ...

, chair of an international panel to review the UK Research Councils e-Science Programmes, as a member of a task force to draft the Obama administration's National Educational Technology Plan 2010, and as an expert witness to the FCC

National Broadband Plan A national broadband plan is a national plan to deploy broadband Internet access. Broadband is a term normally considered to be synonymous with a high-speed connection to the internet. Suitability for certain applications, or technically a certa ...

Recognition

He was awarded the 1993 Nina W. Mathesson Award for contributions to medical informatics and the 2008 Paul Evan Peters Award for the creation and innovative use of information resources and services that advance scholarship and intellectual productivity through communication networks. His 40 years of service to the University of Michigan were honored on October 8, 2012, at the Learning and Discovery in the Connected Age Symposium at the Michigan Theatre.

Personal life

Atkins is married to Monica Atkins, and they have two children. The Dan and Monica Atkins Scholarship Fund was started in their name to provide tuition support to students.

References

External links

Faculty page at Michigan\
{{DEFAULTSORT:Atkins, Daniel E. 1962 births Living people Bucknell University alumni Grainger College of Engineering alumni University of Michigan faculty