By Rebecca Henely
While the first phase of the applied sciences campus coming to Roosevelt Island, now called the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute, will not be done until 2017, the institution now has a provost and dean.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Cornell University officials named Daniel Huttenlocher, dean of computer science at Cornell and a board member of the MacArthur Foundation, as head of the new campus for the next five years.
Bloomberg, Cornell President David Skorton and Cornell Provost Kent Fuchs made the announcement Feb. 15 at the offices of Manhattan-based social network Tumblr.
“This is an unprecedented opportunity to build a new kind of university campus,” Huttenlocher said in a statement.
Huttenlocher boasts a long résumé that includes research in computer vision, social networks and autonomous vehicles. In addition to being a part of Cornell’s faculty since 1988, he has worked at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center and the financial technologies firm Intelligent Mark. He has also written numerous award-winning scientific papers.
Bloomberg and Cornell officials also announced Cathy Dove, the associate dean of Cornell’s engineering college, will be vice president of the campus and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology computer science professor Craig Gotsman will be the director. Technion is a research university in Haifa, Israel, that has partnered with Cornell on the new institute.
Cornell said Huttenlocher and Dove, who had large roles in drawing up the proposal for the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute, will oversee many aspects of the formation of the institute, including constructing the campus, hiring the faculty and selecting the students.
Huttenlocher will also be in charge of development of the institute’s curriculum and a plan to forge relationships with companies and investors within the city.
“Under Dean Huttenlocher, Cathy Dove and Craig Gotsman’s leadership, the tech campus will help us attract and develop more talent to energize our growing tech sector,” Bloomberg said in a statement.
The Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute on Roosevelt Island was created through a contest held by Bloomberg and the city Economic Development Corp. Universities were asked to propose a job-producing, higher education campus in exchange for free real estate and $100 million in city capital.
Long Island City elected officials lobbied for Roosevelt Island to become the location of the new campus, saying it would benefit the growing Queens neighborhood.
Reach reporter Rebecca Henely by e-mail at rhenely@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4564.
