Leader in Computing Trades Roles at UNC, to Head IT Efforts

Posted on June 4, 2004

UNC recruited Daniel A. Reed, a man at the forefront of information technology, to bring a revolutionary movement in computers to the University. Now he’ll be doing it under his own watch.

Less than a year after Reed established an office at Carolina to spearhead the Institute for Renaissance Computing, he was promoted to fill the long-vacant post of vice chancellor for information technology and chief information officer.

Reed said he has a strong vision for the position and aims to define the future of computing at Carolina. The information technology office is charged with overseeing academic technology across campus and ensuring that it remains accessible to students, faculty and staff.

Marian Moore, who last held the position, resigned in July 2002 to take a similar position at Boston College. Steve Jarrell ’73 has served in the interim.

Reed, who serves on President Bush’s Information Technology Advisory Committee, received the inaugural Kenan Eminent Professorship, at $3 million the largest professorship in UNC’s history. In his new appointment, he surrenders the Kenan but becomes UNC’s first endowed vice chancellor.

Reed’s first stint at the University came in 1983, when he was an assistant professor of computer sciences. He then spent the next 20 years at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

He will continue to lead the Institute for Renaissance Computing, which is a joint effort with Duke and N.C. State universities to take an interdisciplinary approach to computing.

UNC also is creating a position of senior associate vice chancellor for information technology to manage daily operations.

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