SCIENCE

The world's leading educational and scientific computing society has recognized Indiana University School of Informatics Dean Bobby Schnabel for his achievements in advancing fundamental knowledge of computing.

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) announced that Schnabel was among a group of 41 professionals in computing and computer science being named as 2010 ACM Fellows. The organization specifically cited Schnabel for "leadership of the computing community in education and diversity, and for contributions to numerical optimization."

Indiana University President Michael McRobbie called Schnabel's inclusion among an elite list of professionals from industry, commerce, education and entertainment a statement to Schnabel's dynamic leadership and to his positive influence on the lives of people around the world impacted by technology. McRobbie made the announcement today (Dec. 10) during the IU Board of Trustees meeting at Indiana University East.

"This is a deserving honor for a dedicated educator and leader who has worked diligently to expand and advance the ways technology can improve quality of life for people everywhere," McRobbie said. "To be recognized in this way for his contributions toward solving complex computational problems and for continued creativity and commitment to technology brings great honor to Indiana University."

Schnabel came to IU in 2007 from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he served as vice provost/associate vice chancellor for academic and campus technology and professor of computer science. An international leader in research related to algorithms, analysis and computer software of the solution of numerical optimization problems, one of the main areas of scientific computation, Schnabel has also been recognized for his leadership roles in increasing the participation of women and under-represented minorities in computing.

In 2002, he co-initiated the planning process that led to the formation of the National Center for Women and Information Technology, and since co-founding the organization in 2004, he has remained a member of that organization's three-member executive team. He is the current chair and the 2007 founder of ACM's Education Policy Committee, which was formed to lead the entire computing community in influencing policy about computing education, particularly at the K-12 level.

Schnabel's leadership roles in increasing the participation of under-represented minorities in computing also include participation in the initial planning of the National Science Foundation's Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) program. He was a co-founder and co-principal investigator of an initial BPC alliance, the Alliance for the Advancement of African-American Researchers in Computing, and he chairs the advisory board of another BPC alliance, the Computing Alliance for Hispanic-Serving Institutions. He also serves on the advisory board of the Institute for Capacity Building, which is the academic arm of the United Negro College Fund.

Since 2005, Schnabel has served as editor-in-chief of SIAM Review, the flagship journal of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

"I am honored to receive this recognition and to share the designation with a group of truly distinguished professionals representing some of our greatest institutions and companies," Schnabel said. "My name is associated with this honor, but it is really a public recognition of the many outstanding individuals I have been privileged to collaborate with over the years."

Schnabel has authored more than 100 technical publications, has presented more than 50 invited conference talks, and has served as a principal or co-principal investigator on over $30 million of research funding, in addition to another $15 million in funding from the National Science Foundation's Computing Innovation Fellows program.

ACM said other North American universities with 2010 ACM Fellows included University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Michigan; Boston University; Washington University; Duke University; Indiana University; University of California at Santa Barbara, San Diego, and Berkeley; Rice University; Rutgers University; Yale University; Brown University; University of British Columbia; and the University of Waterloo.

From the corporate sector, 2010 ACM Fellows were named from Google Inc., Microsoft Research, AT&T and IBM Almaden and Thomas J. Watson Research Center. From outside North America, ACM Fellows were included from Monash University in Australia, University College in the United Kingdom, Saarland University in Germany, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Switzerland and the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

ACM will formally recognize the 2010 Fellows at its June 4, 2011, annual awards banquet in San Jose, Calif.