Daniel Huttenlocher, the John P. and Rilla Neafsey Professor of Computing, Information Science and Business and dean of the Faculty of Computing and Information Science, has been named to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Board of Directors.

"Dan Huttenlocher will be a tremendous asset to the MacArthur Board," said Robert Denham, chairman of the board. "His broad expertise in technology, his interest in global affairs and his familiarity with Chicago and with MacArthur will help inform greatly the work of the board."

The MacArthur Foundation makes grants and loans to defend human rights, advance global conservation and security, improve cities and foster the understanding of how technology affects children and society. It awards five-year, unrestricted fellowships -- the "genius grants" -- to individuals who show exceptional merit and promise of continued creative work. Cornell professors Jon Kleinberg, computer science, and Paul Ginsparg, physics and computing and information science, are among recent recipients.

"I am delighted by this opportunity to serve the MacArthur Foundation," Huttenocher said. "In this age of instant, networked, global information and communication systems, I am particularly excited about the Foundation's initiatives regarding the use of these technologies in the areas of conservation, children and society, and global security."

Huttenlocher previously served on MacArthur's Science Advisory Committee and grew up in Chicago, where MacArthur is headquartered.

"Technology impacts MacArthur's grant making across many fields -- from the effect of digital media on kids and learning to new tools that promise to enhance conservation and security around the globe," said MacArthur President Robert Gallucci. "With his knowledge and deep experience, Dan Huttenlocher will help the foundation understand technology and ensure that we continue to direct our grant making to support creative ideas and to have significant impact in all we do."

Huttenlocher's research interests include computer vision, social and information networks, collaboration tools, geometric algorithms, financial trading systems and IT strategy. Most recently, he has conducted research on computer vision and large-scale social networks in cyberspace. He was an adviser to the Cornell DARPA Urban Challenge race team, which built and is continuing to improve a robot car that can drive itself through city streets.

He holds 24 U.S. patents and has published more than 75 technical papers.

He has received numerous awards for his teaching and research, including being named a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery in 2007. In 1998-99, he chaired the Cornell Task Force on Computing and Information Science, which led to the creation of the Faculty of Computing and Information Science. He spent more than a decade at Xerox PARC directing work that led to the ISO JBIG2 image-compression standard.

Huttenlocher, who joined the Cornell faculty in 1988, received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and his master's and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a board member and former chief technical officer of Intelligent Markets, a provider of advanced trading systems on Wall Street.