Lynne Parker, a professor in the Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, has been selected as the division director of Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS), in the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate of the National Science Foundation, beginning in January 2015.

In this role, Parker will serve as a member of the CISE leadership team and as NSF’s principal spokesperson in the area of information and intelligent systems. The IIS Division is responsible for programs with a total annual budget of approximately $180 million. IIS studies the inter-related roles of people, computers, and information.

IIS supports research and education activities that 1) develop new knowledge about the role of people in the design and use of information technology; 2) increase our capability to create, manage, and understand data and information in circumstances ranging from personal computers to globally-distributed systems; 3) advance our understanding of how computational systems can exhibit the hallmark of intelligence.

As division director, Parker will direct the activities of the division, assess needs and trends, develop breakthrough opportunities, implement overall strategic planning, and steer policy. She will also foster partnerships with other divisions, directorates, federal agencies, scientific organizations, and the academic community. She aims to contribute significantly to CISE’s mission in advancing the frontiers of computer and information science and engineering. She will serve at NSF via an Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) assignment.

At the University of Tennessee, Parker has been professor (since 2002) and associate head (since 2010) in the Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. She is the founder and director of the Distributed Intelligence Laboratory and was the Founding Director of the Center for Intelligent Systems and Machine Learning.

Parker is also an adjunct researcher in the Computer Science and Mathematics Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), where she worked as a full-time researcher for several years. She has also served as the Assistant Director of the UTK-ORNL Science Alliance.

Parker is a widely recognized leader in the field of distributed multi-robot systems. She has published in the areas of mobile robot cooperation, human-robot cooperation, sensor networks, machine learning, intelligent agent architectures, and robot navigation. She is the recipient of several awards for her research and teaching efforts, including the DOE Office of Science Early Career Scientist Award and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). She is a Fellow of IEEE and an active member of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society.