HPCwire: Internet Pioneer Atkins to Receive Paul Evan Peters Award

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February 29, 2008

Internet Pioneer Atkins to Receive Paul Evan Peters Award

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Feb. 26 -- The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and EDUCAUSE are pleased to announce that Daniel E. Atkins, inaugural director of the Office of Cyberinfrastructure at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and a distinguished professor in the School of Information and in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Michigan, has been named the 2008 recipient of the Paul Evan Peters Award. The award recognizes notable, lasting achievements in the creation and innovative use of information resources and services that advance scholarship and intellectual productivity through communication networks.

Named for CNI's founding director, the award will be presented during the CNI Membership Meeting in Minneapolis to be held April 7-8, 2008, where Dr. Atkins will deliver the Paul Evan Peters Memorial Lecture. Previous award recipients include Paul Ginsparg (2006), Brewster Kahle (2004), Vinton Cerf (2002), and Tim Berners-Lee (2000).

"Dan's long and diverse record of accomplishments, and his continuing vision for the changes that information technologies can enable for the future of scholarship worldwide, make him a perfect choice for this award. I'm thrilled to see his work recognized in this way, particularly because the values that inform Dan's work resonate so closely with those of the late Paul Peters," said Clifford Lynch, executive director of the Coalition for Networked Information.

Diana Oblinger, president of EDUCAUSE, commented, "Those of us who have had the pleasure of working with Dan know first-hand his commitment to higher education and scholarship, and how he has sought to enhance those through the use of technology. He has worked across many segments -- from presidents to technical staff -- making important visions, such as cyberinfrastructure, come alive. Even those who have never known Dan have been impacted by his work."

In 2003, the NSF Blue-Ribbon Advisory Panel on Cyberinfrastructure, chaired by Atkins, issued the highly influential report Revolutionizing Science and Engineering Through Cyberinfrastructure. The document, now referred to as "The Atkins Report," catalyzed new priorities and led to the establishment of the Office of Cyberinfrastructure (OCI) at NSF.

The OCI coordinates and supports the acquisition, development, and provision of state-of-the-art cyberinfrastructure resources, tools, and services essential to the conduct of 21st-century science and engineering research and education. Cyberinfrastructure includes supercomputers, information management systems, high-capacity networks, digitally enabled observatories and scientific instruments, and an interoperable suite of software and middleware services and tools for computation, visualization, and collaboration. In June 2006, Atkins joined NSF, on leave from the University of Michigan, to lead the cyberinfrastructure effort.

Atkins stated that his charge at NSF would offer "another important platform for contributing to my overarching professional aspiration -- leadership in the creation and use of information and computer technology in service of human learning, creativity, and well-being."

From 1992 to 1998, Dr. Atkins served as the founding dean of Michigan's School of Information, the first school of its kind in the nation. This professional graduate school, which "embraces a vision that harmonizes people, information systems, and organizations to improve the quality of life," was instrumental in shaping the concept of i-schools nationally.

More recently, Atkins has focused on research and teaching in the area of distributed knowledge communities and open learning resources. He has directed several large experimental digital library projects as well as projects to explore the socio-technical design and application of "collaboratories" for scientific research.

Dr. Atkins has also served as associate dean for Research at the College of Engineering where he presided over the formation of one of the first and most effective university distributed computing environments. Earlier in his career, as a professor in electrical engineering and computer science, Dr. Atkins made major contributions to high-performance computer architecture and led or participated in the design and construction of several experimental machines, including some of the earliest parallel computers. He developed high-speed arithmetic algorithms now widely used in the computer industry, and he conducted groundbreaking work on special-purpose architecture including collaboration with the Mayo Clinic on the development of computer-assisted tomography (CAT).

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