Provost Peggy Agouris sent the following message to the campus community on Oct. 3, 2024. – Ed.

Dear William & Mary students, faculty and staff,

I am proud to announce that Douglas C. Schmidt ’84, M.A. ’86 has agreed to join the university as the inaugural dean of William & Mary’s School of Computing, Data Sciences & Physics. As you know, the school will launch in the fall of 2025, advancing William & Mary’s efforts to prepare students for success in a data-driven world.

Doug is a force of nature, bringing to William & Mary more than thirty years of experience as an internationally recognized computing expert. He is a two-time alumnus of William & Mary, with undergraduate and graduate degrees in sociology, before becoming a leader in computer science. He epitomizes the power of a William & Mary arts and sciences education.

He is currently serving as the director of Operational Test & Evaluation for the U.S. Department of Defense, a position for which he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate early this year. Doug is also the Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Engineering (with a primary appointment in Computer Science) and associate chair of Computer Science at Vanderbilt University.

Doug has spent more than 20 years at Vanderbilt, where he has served as associate provost for research, founding co-director of its Data Science Institute, and director of the data science minor. For 14 years, he was the associate chair of Vanderbilt’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department before becoming the associate chair of Computer Science.

He was also instrumental in building Vanderbilt’s digital learning initiatives, launching that school’s first massive open online course in 2013 and continually developing innovative programs to serve students. In 2022, Fortune magazine ranked Vanderbilt’s online Computer Science professional master’s degree number one in the nation. Additionally, Doug has been deeply involved in advancing entrepreneurship, leading the engineering school’s Technology Entrepreneurship Task Force, among other efforts.

Doug has a long history of government service as well. He has served as a program manager and a deputy director at the DARPA Information Technology Office. Additionally, he has held several advisory roles with the Air Force and jointly with the Navy, including as a member of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, focusing on cyber situational awareness. In the private sector, he has been chief technology officer for both Zircon Computing and Prism Technologies.

Doug is also a senior researcher at the Institute for Software Integrated Systems at Vanderbilt. Over more than 30 years, he has led research projects on a range of computing and data science topics, with a specialty in mobile cloud computing, systems and software. Recent scholarship has focused on prompt engineering, enhancing the accuracy of large language models and generative AI platforms.

In short, Doug has long been recognized as a prominent leader in computing and data science, and we are fortunate to welcome him to lead the launch of the W&M School of Computing, Data Sciences & Physics. I invite you to learn more about him, his experience, and the dean position in the W&M News feature.

Finally, I would like to recognize the search committee, led by Dean Derek Aday, for conducting a successful search that attracted a world-class educator and professional in Douglas Schmidt. The dean role is a pivotal one, tasked with bringing together the new school’s four components – computer science, data science, applied science, and physics – into a cohesive academic unit and growing associated research, grant funding and program enrollment.

Doug in a real sense returns home with this appointment. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from William & Mary, both in sociology, before earning an M.S. and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California, Irvine. He is expected to begin at William & Mary in January. Please join me in welcoming Doug and his partner, Karen Perry.

Sincerely,
Peggy