Robert B. Schnabel (born December 18, 1950) is an American

computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...

. He was executive director and CEO of the

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membe ...

(ACM) from November 1, 2015 to 2017. He is now professor and external chair of computer science at

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University o ...

. His academic specialty is

numerical optimization Mathematical optimization (alternatively spelled ''optimisation'') or mathematical programming is the selection of a best element, with regard to some criteria, from some set of available alternatives. It is generally divided into two subfiel ...

, and he is known for promoting diversity and broadening participation in computing, engineering and mathematics.

Life and career

Schnabel was born in

Queens, New York Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

. He earned his A.B. degree in

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

in 1971. From 1973 to 1977, Schnabel studied

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, ...

at the

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, receiving his

M.S. A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...

degree in 1975 and Ph.D. degree in 1977. Schnabel joined the faculty of the

as an

assistant professor Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...

in the Department of Computer Science in 1977. He remained at CU-Boulder for 30 years, becoming associate in 1980 and then

full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a 'person who professes'. Professors ...

in 1988, chair of the Department of Computer Science in 1990, associate dean for academic affairs of the College of Engineering in 1995 and vice provost for academic and campus computing and chief information officer in 1998. Schnabel was founding director of the Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society (ATLAS) Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder. Together with his former doctoral advisor John E. Dennis, Schnabel wrote a 1996 book on

that has been cited more than 10,000 times in scholarly works (according to

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of Academic publishing, scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in Beta release, beta in November 2004, th ...

). Schnabel was

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 ...

and Professor of the School of Informatics and Computing at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

, a position he held from 2007 to 2015. Schnabel was a co-founder and director for 1997–2007 for the

National Center for Women & Information Technology The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works to increase participation of girls and women in computing. NCWIT was founded in 2004 by Lucinda (Lucy) Sanders, Dr. Telle Whitney, a ...

(NCWIT), a U.S. national non-profit organization aimed at increasing the participation of women and girls in information technology education and careers. He was the founding chair of the

(ACM) Education Policy Committee, chair of the advisory committee for the Computing Alliance of Hispanic Serving Institutions (CAHSI), and a co-founder of the Alliance for the Advancement of African-American Researchers in Computing, and is a board member of

Code.org Code.org is a non-profit organization and educational website founded by Hadi and Ali Partovi, aimed at K-12 students who specialize in computer science. The website includes free coding lessons and other resources. The initiative also targets s ...

, a non-profit organization for encouraging school students to study computer science. Schnabel also served on the advisory committee for 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 ...

Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (NSF CISE), starting in 2012. Schnabel's research interests include

numerical computation Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation (as opposed to symbolic manipulations) for the problems of mathematical analysis (as distinguished from discrete mathematics). It is the study of numerical methods t ...

, numerical solution of unconstrained and constrained optimization problems, solution of systems of nonlinear equations, and nonlinear least squares. He has served as editor-in-chief of ''

SIAM Review Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) is a professional society dedicated to applied mathematics, computational science, and data science through research, publications, and community. SIAM is the world's largest scientific socie ...

'' and as associate editor of several journals, including '' SIAM Journal on Optimization'', ''

Mathematical Programming Mathematical optimization (alternatively spelled ''optimisation'') or mathematical programming is the selection of a best element, with regard to some criteria, from some set of available alternatives. It is generally divided into two subfiel ...

A'', ''

B'' and ''

Operations Research Letters ''Operations Research Letters'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering operations research. It was established in 1981 and is published by Elsevier. The editor-in-chief is Wolfram Wiesemann. Abstracting and indexing The journal is ...

''.

Honors and awards

* TechPoint Trailblazer in Technology Award (2014) *

Computing Research Association The Computing Research Association (CRA) is a 501(c)3 non-profit association of North American academic departments of computer science, computer engineering, and related fields; laboratories and centers in industry, government, and academia enga ...

A. Nico Habermann Award, together with

Lucy Sanders Lucinda "Lucy" Sanders (born 1954) is the current CEO and a co-founder of the National Center for Women & Information Technology. She is the recipient of many distinguished honors in the STEM fields, including induction into the US News STEM Lea ...

and

Telle Whitney Telle Whitney is the former CEO and President of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. A computer scientist by training, she cofounded the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing with Anita Borg in 1994 and joined the Anita ...

(2012) * White House "Champion of Change" (2011) *

ACM Fellow ACM Fellowship is an award and fellowship that recognises outstanding members of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The title of ACM Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals ...

(2010) "For leadership of the computing community in education and diversity, and for contributions to numerical optimization." *

SIAM Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

Fellow (2009) "For contributions to numerical optimization."

References

External links

Robert Schnabel, Professor and Dean of the School of Informatics and Computing
*

Robert Schnabel, Professor of Computer Science and Vice Provost for Academic and Campus Technology
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schnabel, Robert B. 1950 births Living people American computer scientists 2010 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Indiana University faculty University of Colorado Boulder faculty Cornell University alumni Dartmouth College alumni