Daniel E. Atkins III
Dean of the School of Information and Library Studies 1992-96
Dean of the School of Information 1996-98
Daniel E. Atkins is founding dean of the School of Information.
Atkins earned his BS degree from Bucknell University in 1965 and his MS in electrical engineering (1967) and PhD in computer science (1970) degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He served as a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1965 to 1975.
He joined the University of Michigan College of Engineering faculty as an assistant professor in 1971 and was promoted to associate professor in 1978 and professor in 1981. In 1982, he became the associate dean for research and graduate programs at the College of Engineering and served as interim dean of the college from 1989 to 1990. In 1992, he succeeded Robert Warner as dean of the School of Information and Library Studies with a brief to transform the school to reflect the revolutionary changes occurring through the adoption and use of information technology. This led to a new school charter in 1996 for the School of Information.
Describing the process by which a school within the university can change its name, Atkins recalled, “As a condition for Regental approval I had to visit with every other U-M dean to float the change. Most were neutral, some very supportive, and several joked that if we were the School of Information, what was left for them? I responded that they should be thankful we are not becoming the School of Knowledge and Wisdom.”
Other innovations during his tenure at UMSI included a new Master of Science in Information degree, which expanded the traditional degree to encompass human-computer interaction, information economics and information policy. The school also embraced engaged learning, with generous support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
His extensive list of interdisciplinary accomplishments includes pioneering research on high-performance computer architecture, the development of high-speed computer arithmetic used in processor chips and the genesis of the world’s first virtual laboratory, or collaboratory, which pioneered many of the sociotechnical systems that now support routine global collaborations in science and engineering research. He served as project director of the University’s Digital Library Research Project and co-principal investigator for the pilot of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s JSTOR Project.
At the National Science Foundation, following his deanship, Professor Atkins chaired the Blue-Ribbon Advisory Panel on Cyberinfrastructure (2002-03) that became an international roadmap for initiatives on cyber-enabled research in the digital age and served as the inaugural director of the NSF Office of Cyberinfrastructure (2006-08). In 2008, he returned to U-M, serving as associate vice president for research cyberinfrastructure in the Office of the Vice President for Research. He was appointed the first W.K. Kellogg Professor of Community Information from 2008 to 2013.
More recently, he chaired a major consensus report for the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, exploring the application of AI to scientific and humanistic research.
In 2014, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in recognition of his work on radix algorithms and cybertechnical collaboration systems. In 2019, he was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has also been recognized as a Distinguished Alumnus of both the University of Illinois and Bucknell University.
He has chaired or served on many advisory boards for government, academia, philanthropy and industry. Among his numerous awards are the 1993 Nina W. Mathesson Award for contributions to medical informatics and the 2008 Paul Evan Peters Award for the creation and innovative use of information resources and services that advance scholarship and intellectual productivity through communication networks.
He retired from active faculty status in May 2015, with the title of professor emeritus of information and electrical engineering and computer science. In 2022, the College of Engineering presented him with the Edward Law Emeritus Outstanding Service Award for his continuing service to and support of the college.