CTC's Coleman to leave for the U. of Waterloo

Thomas F. Coleman, director of the Cornell Theory Center (CTC) and professor of computer science and applied mathematics, will become the dean of the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Waterloo in Canada, effective July 1.

"Of course this was a very hard decision as it is not easy to leave such a great place and beautiful area, but the offer was too good to turn down," said Coleman. "It is a leading institute for research and teaching in the mathematical sciences, and climbing!"

CTC provides high-performance computing support for Cornell and other researchers and conducts interdisciplinary research in applications of parallel computing.

"Cornell is sad to lose such a dynamic leader and distinguished scientist as Tom Coleman," said Dean of Computing and Information Sciences (CIS) Robert Constable. CTC became part of CIS in July 2004. "Those of you who worked with Tom from the time he became director know what a marvelous job he did in building the center into a powerhouse in high-performance computing and in broadening its mission."

Coleman joined CTC in 1989 and became director in 1998. During his tenure CTC became the world's leading center-of-excellence for Windows-based high-performance parallel computing.

In 2002, CTC's leadership team successfully launched the High-Performance Solutions alliance, an agreement that secured $60 million worth of resources from Intel, Dell and Microsoft. Coleman significantly expanded the center's funding base, developing partnerships with national and international organizations, and developed CTC-Manhattan, a satellite site that serves the needs of executives in the financial services industry.

Coleman is currently on the editorial board of numerous professional journals. He is the author of two books on computational mathematics, the editor of four proceedings, and has published more than 60 journal articles. He is a research consultant for a number of finance-related companies and efforts based in New York, Boston, Seoul, Singapore and Tokyo.

Coleman received his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Waterloo in 1979 and worked for two years as a postdoctoral associate in the Applied Mathematics Division of Argonne National Laboratory (Chicago). He has been a faculty member in the computer science department at Cornell since 1981.