NCSA NEWS

Reed to Step Down as Department Head

released February 9, 2001

 

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CHAMPAIGN, IL — Like the cat in the hat, Dan Reed wears a tall stack, but he will be hanging up the one that reads "DCS Head." For the past four and a half years, he has been head of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; the department consistently ranks among the top five in the country. He became director of the National Computational Science Alliance in March 2000 and then director of National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) in September 2000.

"From the beginning, it was clear to me that I could not fruitfully fulfill both the NCSA and computer science leadership roles in the long term. The 80-hour work week may have headroom, but the 100-hour one does not!" Reed said.

In explaining the rationale and timing for his announcement, he noted, "I owe a great debt to the department. It would have been disruptive for me to step down during a time of great change and opportunity." Last March, alumnus Tom Siebel had just donated $32 million for a new state-of-the-art computer science building, the Siebel Center for Computer Science, and Bill Kubitz, long-time associate department head, had just announced his retirement.

By the beginning of 2001, the architectural plans for Siebel Center were nearing completion and Denny Mickunas had been installed as the new associate department head. The time was now right to make the transition. Based on this, Reed announced that he will step down as department head on May 20 but will remain as acting head until a replacement is found. The search committee will conduct a national search starting this spring. Reed indicated that he would continue his research work in the department as well as the NCSA and Alliance directorships.

During his tenure as head, the computer science department has seen an increase in annual research expenditures by more than 80 percent; the Siebel Center gift; launch of the Internet distance learning program offering individual courses and the Master of Computer Science degree; dramatic, eight-fold growth in the department's endowment, including five endowed faculty positions; expansion of its distinguished lecture series bringing leading academic researchers and successful entrepreneurs to campus; and the recruitment of new faculty members and staff to lead the next generation of Illinois excellence.

When he made his announcement, Reed noted "Daniel Burnham, the architectural father of Chicago, once said 'Make no little plans. They have no power to stir men's blood.' We have not only made large plans, we made them a reality. We should all be very proud of what has happened in computer science at Illinois."

Professor Reed came to Illinois in 1984 as an assistant professor with a PhD from Purdue University. He was promoted to associate professor in 1988 and professor in 1991. His many honors include the IBM Faculty Development Award (1984), NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award (1987), Center for Advanced Study Associate (1989), University Scholar (1989), College of Engineering Xerox Award for Faculty Research (1991), and most recently a Gutgsell Professorship (2000).

Reed's major research has been in the areas of smart spaces, mobile devices, parallel computing, computer system performance evaluation, performance visualization, and computer architecture. He is author of more than 100 research papers, monographs, and books. As principal investigator or co-principal investigator, he has received millions of dollars in funding for research each year from government agencies such as NSF, NASA, DOE and DARPA and from companies such as IBM, Intel, and American Airlines. This includes a $2 million infrastructure grant from NSF in 1999 for a smart spaces laboratory to explore the confluence of mobile networking, intelligent devices, and adaptive software and to create responsive environments that can dynamically adjust to user behavior and needs.

The Pablo project, one of Reed's early research studies on performance, instrumentation, and visualization environment for large-scale parallel systems, has been one of the cornerstones of the national High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) initiative. Multiple companies have licensed the Pablo software environment as one of the bases for their commercial performance tools. It is also used for application and system input/output characterization for the national Scalable I/O (SIO) initiative.

Reed has served on numerous editorial boards, including International Journal of High-Speed Computing, Concurrency Practice and Experience, IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems and Performance Evaluation and Modeling for Computer Systems. He has served as conference chair, organizer, or program member for many professional organizations and groups.

Recently, he has served on the board of directors of the Computing Research Association (CRA) and as chair of its government affairs committee, as a member of the NSF Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Advisory Committee and chair of their ad hoc committee on high-performance software, as member of the Illinois IT workforce study group, and as a member of the Illinois Governor Ryan's VentureTECH Advisory Committee.

Professor Reed is recognized not only for his research, vision, and leadership but also for his personal dedication to excellence, his eloquence, and his ability to inspire.

"As I look back on the past five years," Reed reflected, "I take great pride in the department's accomplishments. It has been a pleasure to work with such talented and dedicated faculty and staff. In my new role as NCSA and Alliance director, I look forward to working with the Department of Computer Science to advance the state of computing at Illinois and around the world."

 

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