Dean Laura Haas Appointed Vice-Chair of UMass Amherst Chancellor Search Committee
Dr. Laura Haas, dean of the UMass Amherst Manning College of Information & Computer Sciences (CICS), will serve as Vice Chair on the committee to search for the successor to Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy, who will retire at the end of the 2022–2023 academic year after a decade of service to the university.
The committee, chaired by University of Massachusetts Trustee Victor Woolridge, comprises twenty other distinguished and diverse members and will seek input from a wide range of stakeholders, including community leaders, students, faculty, staff, and alumni in the coming months.
“This is a stellar team of people who care deeply about the university mission and recognize the importance of that mission to the Commonwealth and nation,” said UMass Board of Trustees Chairman Robert Manning. “At this pivotal moment for the university and for higher education in America, it is imperative that we find the best possible person to lead UMass Amherst forward. I want to thank each member who has answered our call to serve.”
Over his decade of service, Chancellor Subbaswamy has led UMass Amherst through a period of unprecedented growth in enrollment, rankings, and graduation rates. As chancellor, he was instrumental in the founding of the College of Information and Computer Sciences in 2015. Recent substantial investments in the college secured under his leadership include an $18 million naming gift from Robert and Donna Manning, and a $75 million commitment from the Baker-Polito administration that will enhance and expand the college’s facilities, enabling accelerated enrollment growth to meet growing student demand.
“Chancellor Subbaswamy’s service to the university cannot be overstated,” says Dean Laura Haas. “At CICS, we know him as a consistent advocate for expanding our college’s leading role in information and computer sciences research, and a champion of our goal of computing for the common good. I thank him for all the work he has done, and am honored to have been selected to help lead efforts in finding a successor to oversee UMass’ next decade of growth.”
Prior to joining UMass Amherst in 2017, Dean Haas spent 36 years at IBM, where she founded the Accelerated Discovery Lab, a unique environment dedicated to enabling research in and improvements to the tools and systems that facilitate analysis of data. following her positions as the Director of Computer Science at IBM's Almaden research center, and her international responsibility for IBM Research's exploratory science program. She is a recipient of the Anita Borg Institute Technical Leadership Award, and the ACM SIGMOD Codd Innovation Award. She has served as chair of the the National Academies Computer Science and Telecommunications Board since 2019, and has served on the board since 2013. She is an ACM Fellow, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.