Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Eunice Santos as dean of the School of Information Sciences. She is currently the Ron Hochsprung Endowed Chair and Professor of Computer Science and the chair of the Department of Computer Science at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Professor Santos will begin her new role on August 16, 2019, pending approval by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees.

Professor Santos is a renowned scholar in computational social systems including social networks analysis and socio-cultural modeling. She is the recipient of multiple research awards including the NSF CAREER award, IEEE Computer Society Technical Achievement award and the IEEE Big Data Security Woman of Achievement award. She also is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has served as the director and principal investigator of numerous federal research centers and programs. Her work has led to significant insights related to community resilience, disaster response and belief and opinion change.

Our School of Information Sciences has a legacy of excellence and an extraordinary reputation. I am confident that Professor Santos will strengthen, diversify and amplify our top-ranked iSchool’s excellence and leadership in this century of digital transformation. Her experience will further advance the iSchool and university reputations as national leaders in information and data sciences to improve the communities in which we all live and work.

Following a national search for this position, I consulted with the search committee, the School of Information Sciences leadership and with Chancellor Robert Jones. Professor Santos emerged as the best candidate to serve as the next leader of the iSchool.

I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Allen Renear, who has led the iSchool as dean since 2012. Under his leadership, the college’s excellence has continued to advance and laid a solid foundation for future growth and success. I also want to thank the members of the search committee, chaired by College of Education Dean James Anderson, for their efforts and commitment to this search.

Please join me in congratulating Professor Eunice Santos on her appointment as dean of the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Sincerely,

Andreas C. Cangellaris
Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost