Hartmanis

The search for Cornell University's next president continues to follow a steady, mindful course as the first rounds of candidate interviews near completion. And the Presidential Search Committee (PSC) continues to receive more recommendations for candidates, said Diana Daniels, chair of the committee.

Among those involved in the interview process is Juris Hartmanis, the W.R. Read Professor Emeritus in Engineering and Computer Science.

Hartmanis, also senior associate dean for computing and information science at Cornell, is one of five faculty members serving on the PSC. He brings more than 40 years of experience with the Cornell community to the search process and says that to date he is "very impressed by the committee's efficiency, its leadership and the PSC's dedication to finding a great president for Cornell."

He added that the "first round of interviews justifies a positive outlook on the PSC activities and the expectation of a successful search."

Hartmanis served on the faculty at Cornell and Ohio State University after receiving his doctorate in mathematics from the California Institute of Technology in 1955, then spent seven years as a research scientist at the General Electric Research Laboratory in Schenectady, N.Y. In 1965 he returned to the Cornell faculty as the founding chair of the newly created Department of Computer Science. Among other current activities, Hartmanis is a member of the Santa Fe Institute's Science Board and Science Steering Committee.

His main research interests are in theory of computing, particularly in computational complexity. In 1993 he shared the Turing Award with R.E. Sterns (SUNY Albany) "in recognition of their seminal paper that established the foundations for the field of computational complexity theory." Hartmanis also was awarded the Bolzano Gold Medal of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and the Grand Medal of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Latvian Academy of Sciences, and he holds honorary doctorates from the University of Missouri and the University of Dortmund.

As for his colleagues serving on the PSC, Hartmanis was upbeat.

"In all our discussions and information gathering, there is an open exchange of views and informative reports on and scrutiny of possible candidates," he said.

For a complete list of all PSC members as well as background and updates on the search, visit the Presidential Search Web site at http://www.cornell.edu/presidentsearch/.