Eight faculty from the George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing, including two from Rice's Department of Computer Science, have been named to endowed chairs. The two Rice CS faculty members include Lydia Kavraki and Christopher Jermaine.
Lydia Kavraki has been named the Kenneth and Audrey Kennedy Professor of Computing. Kavraki holds her primary appointment in computer science and joint appointments with the departments of electrical and computer engineering, mechanical engineering, and bioengineering. She is the director of the Ken Kennedy Institute.
Kavraki’s research develops AI and the algorithmics needed to connect the digital to the physical world. In her robotics work, she develops methodologies for motion planning and for reasoning under uncertainty, and multi-modal frameworks to instruct robots and collaborate with them. In computational biomedicine, she develops AI methods for understanding biomolecular interactions and aiding the design of new therapeutics.
Christopher Jermaine has been named the Victor E. Cameron Professor of Computer Science.
Jemaine joined the Rice faculty in 2009 and currently serves as the chair of the Department of Computer Science. His research interests include developing computer systems for optimized large-scale data analytics and machine learning technologies.
“Excellence in research, teaching, and service is the cornerstone of our school’s mission, and recognizing individuals who epitomize this standard is a top priority,” said Luay Nakhleh, William and Stephanie Sick Dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing. “These eight faculty members exemplify the level of excellence we aspire to achieve.”
See the full list of newly endowed chairs.