Norman Gibbs has been named director of the Connecticut Information Technology Institute (CITI) at the Stamford campus. He begins his duties this month.

"I am delighted about this appointment," says Gibbs. "I hope CITI will become a showcase for how universities and industry can partner. I think there is tremendous potential that is unrealized today. It's going to be a lot of fun."

Gibbs, a graduate of Ursinus College (bachelor's degree in mathematics) and Purdue University (master's and doctorate in computer science), remembers being just the 16th person to graduate from Purdue in computer science in the 1960s. Since that time he has spent more than 16 years as a faculty member, with a record of innovation in the area of computer science. In addition, Gibbs has more than 11 years' technical leadership and management experience, running a federally funded research and development organization.

Many of Gibbs' accomplishments in computer science have been firsts in the field. At the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va., he established the first computer science degree program. He also secured funding from the Office of Naval Research to conduct research that developed algorithms and software for the Navy that are still being used today.

As professor and assistant chair of the computer science department at Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz., he led a team that developed a new Ph.D. program in computer science and served as the university's representative to the governor's board of regents task force to improve technical education throughout Arizona's public university system.

In 1983, Gibbs became professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science and Information Studies at Bowdoin College in Maine, where he secured Sloan Foundation funding to lead a joint effort on the part of liberal arts colleges to address the problems of how to merge computer sciences into the traditional liberal arts curriculum. That program has become the standard for most universities nationwide.

When Carnegie Mellon University received federal funding to establish the Software Engineering Institute in 1985, the university actively sought Gibbs as the first director of its education program. His first duty there was to develop a software engineering curriculum and he produced a model curriculum for a professional master's in software engineering degree program that was valued by both industry and academia. His efforts increased the number of master's in software engineering degree programs throughout the country from three in 1985 to 40 in 1994. Carnegie Mellon's MSE degree program is still considered one of the country's best.

In 1989, while still director of the MSE program, Gibbs was named director of the products and services division of the Software Engineering Institute, where he oversaw a budget of $20 million and a staff of 65 people. Under his direction the university built and staffed a state-of-the-art video studio that produces high quality educational videotapes and from which the university can conduct live telecasts. In three years, Gibbs increased funding for the division from $2 million to $8 million.

For the past two years, Gibbs has been director of information technology and services for Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C., where he redesigned and implemented an entirely new academic and administrative computer environment for the college.

Pam Julias

Pamela Julias is public affairs and marketing consultant for the Stamford campus.