Indian American Professor Vivek Sarkar Named Dean of Georgia Tech’s College of Computing

Indian American professor Vivek Sarkar has been appointed dean of Georgia Tech’s College of Computing effective June 1. He most recently served as as chair of the School of Computer Science and held the Stephen Fleming Chair for Telecommunications at Georgia Tech. As dean, he will oversee the College of Computing’s extensive portfolio of schools, degree programs, research initiatives, and strategic partnerships, the university said. 

Describing him as “a pioneer in his field” the university said “Sarkar’s work has advanced academic understanding of high-performance computing systems and influenced the development of technologies that shape modern society.” His research has led to breakthroughs in parallel computing, making complex computations more efficient and easier to program. In addition to his academic achievements, he has a passion for mentoring the next generation of computer scientists and engineers, and is “committed to fostering diversity and inclusion within the field of computing, ensuring that all individuals have the opportunity to succeed,” the university added. 

In a statement, Sarkar said it’s an “honor and a privilege” to serve as the next dean of the College of Computing,. “We have a great community of faculty, staff, students, and alumni, and I look forward to all of us pulling together with the rest of the campus and our external partners to further advance our mission of addressing critical challenges related to computing and its impact on society.”

Before joining Georgia Tech, he served as the E.D. Butcher Chair in Engineering at Rice University, where he was also chair of the Department of Computer Science. Prior to that, he was at IBM Research as a senior manager and a member of the IBM Academy of Technology. 

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He earned his Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University and has received numerous awards and honors for his groundbreaking research. He is a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He has served as a member of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee since 2009, on the Computing Research Association’s board of directors from 2015 to 2022, and as a member of the ACM Council since 2022.