Three Acclaimed Leaders Join UVA’s Biocomplexity Institute and Initiative as Distinguished Institute Professors
The Biocomplexity Institute and Initiative at the University of Virginia is pleased to announce the appointments of Dr. Daniel J. Rosenkrantz, Dr. Richard E. Stearns, and Dr. Catherine E. Woteki as Distinguished Institute Professors. All three of these highly accomplished and esteemed individuals come to the Biocomplexity Institute after already having made significant contributions in the computer science, health and nutrition, and science policy fields.
“We are thrilled that Dr. Rosenkrantz, Dr. Stearns, and Dr. Woteki have joined the Biocomplexity Institute,” said Christopher L. Barrett, executive director, Biocomplexity Institute and Initiative. “We are fortunate to have the opportunity to collaborate with these three innovators as we continue to research and develop practical solutions to large-scale problems in society today.”
The pioneering contributions of Dr. Rosenkrantz and Dr. Stearns paved the way for some of the building blocks that have enabled the development of biocomplexity science and research. These two highly respected computer scientists have a long history of collaboration with researchers at UVA’s Biocomplexity Institute. Over the course of 20 years, their work with scientists at the Institute on the computational theory of graphical dynamical systems has provided a formal basis for analyzing complex physical, social, biological, and technological systems.
Dr. Rosenkrantz is an ACM Fellow and received the ACM SIGMOD Contributions Award in 2001 for his seminal work and service to the database research community. He has served as an associate editor and editor-in-chief of the Journal of the ACM, a highly prestigious computer science journal. Dr. Rosenkrantz holds the title of leading professor emeritus in the department of computer science at the University at Albany – State University of New York (SUNY), where he spent 28 years, including six years as department chair.
Dr. Stearns was awarded the prestigious ACM Alan M. Turing Award in 1993. This is the highest award given in computer science and is often referred to as the field’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize. For nearly 16 years, he served as an associate editor of the SIAM Journal on Computing, a top-tier computer science journal. Dr. Stearns holds the title of distinguished professor emeritus in the department of computer science at the University at Albany – State University of New York (SUNY), where he spent 22 years, including seven years as department chair.
Dr. Woteki is known internationally for her expertise in agriculture, food, nutrition, and health from her years of research leadership in government, industry, and academia. She is currently a professor of food science and human nutrition at Iowa State University where she served as dean of the College of Agriculture from 2002 to 2005. Dr. Woteki was previously undersecretary for the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Research, Education, and Economics (REE) mission area, as well as the department's chief scientist.
She has held other prestigious positions, including deputy associate director for science in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and director of the food and nutrition board of the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Woteki is the recipient of many awards for her contributions to science and society, including being elected into the National Academy of Medicine in 1999 and induction into the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA, Hall of Fame in 2017.
The Biocomplexity Institute and Initiative extends a warm welcome to Dr. Rosenkrantz, Dr. Stearns, and Dr. Woteki!