University of Michigan Internet Pioneer to Receive Paul Evan Peters Award

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Feb. 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A University of Michigan
professor whose work has made it easier for scientists to collaborate online
across the globe has been named the 2008 recipient of the distinguished Paul
Evan Peters Award.

Daniel E. Atkins, a professor in the School of Information and in the
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and the inaugural
Director of the Office of Cyberinfrastructure at the National Science
Foundation (NSF), received the biannual award from the Coalition for Networked
Information (CNI), the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and EDUCAUSE.

The award recognizes notable, lasting achievements in the creation and
innovative use of information resources and services that advance scholarship
and intellectual productivity through communication networks.

Atkins research has focused on distributed knowledge communities and open
learning resources. He has directed several large experimental digital
library projects as well as projects to explore the socio-technical design and
application of "collaboratories," or virtual laboratories, for scientific
research.

His work in this area led the National Science Foundation (NSF) to ask him in
2003 to chair an NSF Blue-Ribbon Advisory Panel on Cyberinfrastructure. That
panel issued the highly influential report Revolutionizing Science and
Engineering through Cyberinfrastructure, now referred to as "The Atkins
Report," which catalyzed new priorities and led to the establishment of the
Office of Cyberinfrastructure (OCI) at NSF.

In June 2006, Atkins joined NSF, on leave from the University of Michigan, to
lead the cyberinfrastructure effort. Under his direction, the OCI supports
the resources, tools, and services essential to the conduct of 21st-century
science and engineering research and education. These include supercomputers,
information management systems, high-capacity networks, digitally enabled
observatories and scientific instruments, and software and tools for
computation, visualization, and collaboration.

Atkins joins a short but distinguished list of previous winners: Tim
Berners-Lee, developer of the World Wide Web; Vinton Cerf, creator of the
TCP/IP protocol on which the Internet runs; Brewster Kahle, founder of the
Internet Archive (a.k.a., the Wayback Machine); and Paul Ginsparg, founder of
the huge arxiv.org pre-print archive.

From 1992 to 1998, Atkins served as the founding dean of the University of
Michigan's School of Information, the first school of its kind in the nation.
This professional graduate school, which "embraces a vision that harmonizes
people, information systems, and organizations to improve the quality of
life," was instrumental in shaping the concept of iSchools nationally.

Atkins also served as Associate Dean for Research at the University of
Michigan College of Engineering, where he presided over the formation of one
of the first and most effective distributed computing environments in higher
education.

Named for CNI's founding director, the award will be presented during the CNI
Membership Meeting in Minneapolis to be held April 7-8, 2008, where Atkins
will deliver the Paul Evan Peters Memorial Lecture.

For more information about the award, visit
www.educause.edu/PaulEvanPetersAward/852.

For more information about Dr. Atkins, visit
www.si.umich.edu/people/faculty-detail.htm?sid=2 .

Get a high-resolution photo of Dr. Atkins at
www.si.umich.edu/images/faculty/atkins-2008.jpg .

Get a timeline of Dr. Atkins's career at
www.si.umich.edu/images/faculty/atkins-timeline-2008.pdf .

Dr. Atkins is available for interviews. To schedule one, contact Deborah J.
White at (703) 292-8970.

SOURCE University of Michigan School of Information

Frank DeSanto, School of Information, University of Michigan, +1-734-647-7313,
fdesanto@umich.edu, si.umich.edu