Bryant, Lehoczky Stepping Down in 2014

Randal Bryant, dean of the School of Computer Science (SCS), and John Lehoczky, dean of the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, have announced that they will step down at the end of the academic year.

Lehoczky, the Thomas Lord University Professor of Statistics, will return full time to his faculty position in the Department of Statistics. Bryant, a University Professor of Computer Science, will return full time to his faculty position in the Computer Science Department after a one-year sabbatical.

Prior to becoming dean of SCS, Bryant was head of the Computer Science Department from 1999 to 2004. He is recognized for his research on Binary Decision Diagrams, which have been widely used in industry to verify and diagnose the flaws in computer hardware and software.

As dean, Bryant has been instrumental in fostering research in data-intensive computing, at CMU and at a national level. CMU's strengths in data-storage systems, parallel computing, natural language processing and machine learning have enabled the university to become a leader in big data computing.

Bryant also was directly involved in the creation of the software developer certification project. Conducted in conjunction with the Kenya Information and Computation Technology Board and funded by the World Bank, the activity created a worldwide test to measure the qualifications of entry-level software developers.

Bryant has received major awards from the Institute for Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) and the Association for Computing Machinery, the two main professional societies for computer science, and he is a fellow of both organizations. He also has received major awards from industry organizations, including the Electronic Design Automation Consortium and the Semiconductor Research Association. He has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Computer Science Professor Guy Blelloch will chair the committee to search for Bryant's replacement.

Lehoczky served as the head of the Department of Statistics from 1984 to 1995 and has led the Dietrich College since 2000. During his tenure, Lehoczky has overseen the launch of the college's ambitious Humanities Initiative, which created the Humanities Scholars Program, the Humanities Center and the Center for the Arts in Society.

He also is responsible for fostering research in the brain sciences and has been a strong advocate for developing CMU international programs such as the Center for International Relations and Politics.

Lehoczky is well known for his application of stochastic modeling to problems in finance, which led to the creation of a unique master's degree program in computational finance at CMU involving the Department of Statistics, the Department of Mathematical Sciences, the Tepper School of Business and the Heinz College.

Lehoczky collaborates with faculty and graduate students from CMU's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, SCS and the Software Engineering Institute. Major national projects like NASA's Space Station, Mars Rover and the GPS Satellite System have adopted his theories, and several IEEE computer standards incorporate Lehoczky's work.

Lehoczky is a fellow of the American Statistical Association, the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, INFORMS and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is an elected member of the International Statistics Institute.

Richard Tucker, the Paul Mellon University Professor of Applied Linguistics, will chair the committee to search for Lehoczky's replacement.