New Leadership: Vivek Sarkar Appointed Dean of Georgia Tech’s College of Computing

Georgia Tech Names Vivek Sarkar as Dean of the College of Computing

Vivek Sarkar has been named dean and John P. Imlay Jr, Chair of Georgia’s Tech College of Computing, effective June 1. He has made significant contributions to computing, not just in academia but in industry as well. He has also served as chair of the School of Computer Science and held the Stephen Fleming Chair for Telecommunication at Georgia Tech.

Steven W. McLaughlin, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs has described Sarkar as an outstanding leader in the School of Computer Science. He has provided their faculty, staff, and students with the strongest support.  The executive vice president is confident that Sarkar will take the College to even greater heights and usher in the next era of computing at Tech.

Vivek is a pioneer in his field and his work has helped advance the academic understanding of high-performance computing systems as well as influenced the development of technologies that shape modern society. His research has led to many parallel computing breakthroughs, making complex computations more efficient and easier to program. Moreover, he has a passion for mentoring the next generation of computer scientists and engineers. He is also committed to fostering diversity and inclusion in his field.

Sarkar served as the E.D. Butcher Chair in Engineering at Rice University, where he was also the chair of the Department of Computer Science before joining Georgia Tech. Before Rice University, he was a senior member at IBM Research and a member of the IBM Academy of Technology. He received his PhD in computer science from Stanford University and has received numerous awards for his groundbreaking research. He is also a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He has served as a member of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee since 2009, on the Computing Research Association’s board of directors from 2015 to 2022, and as a member of the ACM Council since 2022.

The College of Computing is the largest program in the country and one of the most highly ranked, No. 6 in undergraduate and No. 7 in graduate computing education. In the past five years, its enrollment has doubled and the research budget has increased to 44 million dollars. They have also added two new schools, the first of their kind: The School of Cybersecurity & Privacy and the School of Computing Instruction. Sarkar will be overseeing the extensive portfolio of schools, degree programs, research initiatives, and strategic partnerships. This will solidify Georgia Tech as a global leader in computing education and research.

Editor’s Note:

Vivek Sarkar’s appointment would herald a new era for the institution counting on his distinguished background in industry and academia. Excelling in parallel computing and his vision to add schools in cybersecurity and computing instruction not only highlights his commitment to advancing the field. Skoobuzz would like to congratulate Vivek Sarkar on taking over the role of Dean at Georgia Tech’s College of Computing.