Carla Brodley appointed dean of the College of Computer and Information Science

Northeastern University has appointed Dr. Carla E. Brodley as dean of the College of Computer and Information Science, effective Aug. 1, 2014.

Brodley comes to Northeastern from Tufts University, where she is currently professor of computer science with a secondary appointment in the Clinical and Translational Science Institute of the Tufts Medical Center. From 2010 through 2013 she chaired the Department of Computer Science at Tufts.

She is an internationally recognized researcher in machine learning and knowledge discovery in databases who has applied her expertise to problems in personalized and evidence-based medicine, medical imaging, neuroscience, remote sensing, and computer security. Her research has been funded by a wide range of federal agencies, corporations and foundations, among them the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, NASA, DARPA, IBM, and the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

“A leader in computing research, Dr. Brodley’s achievements have contributed greatly to the advancement of the changing field of computer science,” said Stephen W. Director, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. “An accomplished leader and scholar, she will take Northeastern’s leadership in computer science to the next level-both within and beyond CCIS.”

Brodley serves on the boards of the International Machine Learning Society and DARPA’s Information Science and Technology Board. Among her many professional recognitions, she has received an NSF CAREER Award and memberships to the Defense Science Study Group of DARPA and the AAAI Executive Council.

“Northeastern is a university on the move and I am thrilled to be joining as the next dean of the College of Computer and Information Science,” Brodley said. “In today’s information driven age it is more important than ever to integrate computing and information science into every academic field. I look forward to working with faculty, staff, and students to build upon the great momentum that has already made CCIS one of the nation’s most exciting interdisciplinary colleges.”

She is also a member of the editorial boards of Machine Learning, Journal of Machine Learning Research, and Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery. She is co-chairing the 2014 conference of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and from 2008-2011 co-chaired the Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research.

Brodley was awarded the bachelor’s degree in mathematics and computer science from McGill University in 1985 and earned her doctorate in computer science from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1994. Prior to joining Tufts, she was on the electrical and computer engineering faculty at Purdue University, where she was honored with the Ruth and Joel Spira Outstanding Teacher award in 1998. In 2010, the University of Massachusetts recognized Brodley with the Alumni award for Outstanding Educator.

In an email to the faculty of CCIS, Director thanked Larry Finkelstein for his outstanding contributions as dean of the college for 12 years. “Larry’s dedication to the college and to the university, in addition to his strong leadership throughout his tenure as dean, has been key in helping the college achieve the level of excellence it enjoys today,” he wrote.