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[Published originally in the March 2002 edition of Computing Research News, p. 3.]

Freeman to Head CISE Directorate

Long-time CRA board member, Peter A. Freeman, has been named the assistant director for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) at NSF, effective in May. Dr. Freeman is currently the John P. Imlay, Jr. Dean of Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology.

Since 1990, Dr. Freeman has served Georgia Tech as a professor and founding dean of the College of Computing. From 1992 to 1995, he also acted as the university's Chief Information Officer. He is a recognized leader in encouraging interdisciplinary work involving computer science.

Dr. Freeman has served on numerous national panels and advisory committees, is a fellow of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Association for Computing Machinery and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Computing Research Association since 1988. As the new CISE director, he is following in the footsteps of other CRA board members, such as William Wulf, Juris Hartmanis, and most recently Ruzena Bajcsy, who have also served in this position.

Dr. Freeman served as director of NSF's Computer and Computation Research Division within CISE from 1987-89, where he helped formulate the federal government's High-Performance Computing and Communications Initiative. He held previous faculty positions at George Mason University and the University of California at Irvine. Dr. Freeman received his Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie-Mellon University.