International Computer Science Institute Appoints Former Drexel Senior Vice Provost Deborah Crawford as New Director

BERKELEY, CA--(Marketwired - May 15, 2014) - The International Computer Science Institute, one of the few independent nonprofit computer science centers in the country, announced today that it has appointed Dr. Deborah L. Crawford as its new director. Dr. Crawford was most recently the senior vice provost of research at Drexel University, where she led the creation of its Computer and Informatics College. She will assume duties on August 15 of this year.

Dr. Crawford received her PhD from the University of Bradford, England, and then worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory before joining the National Science Foundation in 1993. During her 17-year tenure at the NSF, she was instrumental in establishing key programs and initiatives, holding executive roles in a number of divisions and overseeing the execution of the Math and Science Partnership program, which works with local education institutions and partners to improve the performance of U.S. children in mathematics and science.

In 2002, she was named deputy assistant director of the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate, where she established and directed the Office of Cyberinfrastructure between 2005 and 2006. In 2010, she was named the senior vice provost of research by Drexel University, where she lobbied for and led the creation of the College of Computer and Informatics. The college began operations in September 2013. Dr. Crawford has also served on the ICSI Board of Trustees since 2012.

Dr. Crawford has twice received the Presidential Rank Award, given by the president to recognize senior executives and career employees for leadership, strength, integrity, industry, and commitment to excellence in public service. In addition, she has received two NSF Director's Awards for Distinguished Service, the agency's highest honor.

"Deb's unflagging commitment to service and leadership and her remarkable record of creatively and resolutely solving problems make her uniquely suited to lead ICSI," said Dr. Prabhakar Raghavan, the chair of ICSI's Board of Trustees. "We are thrilled she has decided to join us."

"I have enjoyed watching ICSI tackle exciting new research challenges as a board member and I look forward to leading that endeavor," said Dr. Crawford. "I welcome this opportunity to support and expand ICSI's research programs."

She succeeds Professor Nelson Morgan, who assumed the position in 1999 and who will continue to work in the Speech Group as a senior researcher.

About ICSI
The International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) is a leading center for research in computer science and one of the few independent, nonprofit research institutes in the United States. With its unique focus on international collaboration and its affiliation with the University of California at Berkeley, ICSI brings together the most influential U.S. scientists and experts from around the world in areas such as computer networking and security, speech and language processing, algorithms, bioinformatics, computer architecture, computer vision, multimedia analysis, and artificial intelligence. For more information, visit ICSI at www.ICSI.berkeley.edu, follow us at www.twitter.com/ICSIatBerkeley, or read our blog at http://www.ICSI.berkeley.edu/icsi/blog.