ASU Now | June 23, 2020
Arizona State University Executive Vice President and Chief Research and Innovation Officer Sethuraman “Panch” Panchanathan has been named the 15th director of the National Science Foundation, unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on June 18 after his December 2019 nomination by President Donald J. Trump.
During his six-year appointment, Panchanathan will be responsible for overseeing NSF staff and management, program creation and administration, merit review, planning, budget and day-to-day operations. He also will direct the federal agency’s mission, including support for all fields of fundamental science and engineering, keeping the U.S. at the leading edge of discovery.
Panchanathan has identified three pillars of his vision for NSF: Advancing research into the future, ensuring inclusivity, and continuing global leadership in science and engineering – and he has a history of doing exactly those things. His current position, which he has held for the past nine years at Arizona State University, has allowed him to lead the Knowledge Enterprise, which has advanced research, innovation, strategic partnerships, entrepreneurship, and global and economic development. During his time with Knowledge Enterprise, ASU has been named the most innovative university in the nation by U.S. News and World Report for five straight years, beginning in 2015.
For more than two decades at ASU, Panchanathan has focused on developing people-centric technologies and fostering innovative research and initiatives to change society for the better. He was a founding director of ASU’s School of Computing and Informatics, which went on to become the School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering, one of the six Fulton Schools.
Panchanathan is the Foundation Chair in Computing and Informatics at the School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering. He also founded the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing, where he researches human-centered computing to improve quality of life through artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques.