Charles Van Loan, the Joseph C. Ford Professor of Engineering at Cornell University, has been named the new chair of the university's Department of Computer Science. The appointment was announced by John Hopcroft, dean of the College of Engineering.

Van Loan began his five-year term July 1, succeeding Robert Constable, who served as chair for the previous five years.

"I am very pleased that Charlie is willing to take on this task and look forward to working with him and the faculty in computer science," Hopcroft said.

Hopcroft also took the opportunity to thank Constable for his service. "Under his leadership, the department has prospered and broadened its scope immensely," he said. "He has done an outstanding job of moving the department forward. I know that Charlie will continue to build on the work Bob has begun and am confident that the department is well-positioned to meet the challenges at hand."

"It's an exciting time to take over," Van Loan said, mentioning some of the new ways that computer science is showing up around campus. "Our connections with biology and the library are blooming, and I'll do everything possible to ensure the fulfillment of these new research initiatives. I also predict a heightened profile of CS in the Arts College through cognitive studies and in the Engineering College through the Theory Center."

While his research focuses on a field known as "matrix computations," Van Loan always has been interested in bringing research ideas into the undergraduate classroom and in teaching the fundamentals, not only to computer science majors but also to students in other disciplines who, he believes, need an understanding of computing in the modern world. He developed and taught the famous "Computing for Poets" classes in the late 1970s. The course was designed not only to teach programming skills but also develop an appreciation for the culture of computing. More recently he has taught undergraduate numerical methods, one of the core courses for computer science majors that deals with the kinds of problems scientists and engineers must solve and that prepares students for work on advanced computers. This spring he taught over 500 students in CS 100, Introduction to Computer Programming.

"Those who fail to understand the computer as a medium for expression will be disadvantaged in the same way as those who cannot read or write," he said in an article that was published almost 20 years ago. Liberal education is also important for the undergraduate computer science major, he said recently, noting that the program Cornell provides for CS majors is renowned for its technical rigor and the expectation that the student develop a strong secondary interest. "There may be a shortage of computer scientists, but there's an acute shortage of liberally educated computer scientists who can do one other thing," he tells his students.

His first priority as chair will be staffing courses for the fall. "Making sure we can deliver all these big courses in a quality way is a real challenge," he said. "Doing that while preserving an environment for creative research and course development is a challenge of epic proportions. But I have the greatest colleagues and staff in the world, and that guarantees the best possible future."

"I feel the department will be in very good hands with Charlie. He has been a key player in the department for many years," Constable said. Echoing Van Loan's sentiments, he added, "The thing I'm most proud of in my term as chair is that we found a vision that the whole department could enthusiastically endorse, which includes our notion that computer science is relevant to every subject and every discipline."

Van Loan received his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan, and before coming to Cornell worked at the University of New Mexico and the University of Manchester, England. During his Cornell career he has held sabbatical and research appointments at Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Umea, Sweden, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

He came to Cornell in 1975 as an assistant professor of computer science. He was attracted to Cornell, he said, because of the faculty and because of the chance to contribute to two colleges: Engineering and Arts and Sciences. He received tenure in 1980 and became a full professor in 1987. He served as director of undergraduate studies for the department in the 1994-95 academic year and from 1996 through 1998. From 1982 to 1987 he was director of the department's graduate program.

Van Loan is a member of the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). He has published five books: Handbook for Matrix Computations (SIAM Publications, 1988), with Thomas Coleman, Cornell professor of computer science; Computational Frameworks for the Fast Fourier Transform (SIAM Publications, 1992); Matrix Computations, Third Edition (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), with G.H. Golub; Introduction to Computational Science and Mathematics (Jones and Bartlett, 1996); and Introduction to Scientific Computation: A Matrix-Vector Approach Using Matlab, 2nd Edition (Prentice-Hall, 1997).

Cornell's Department of Computer Science, launched in 1965, is one of the oldest such departments in the country and is ranked in the top five in the United States in graduate and undergraduate teaching.