Scott F. Midkiff named vice president for information technology and chief information officer

3 Sep 2012

Scott F. Midkiff, professor and head of the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, will become the university’s vice president for information technology and chief information officer in October, announced university President Charles W. Steger.

“I am very pleased to announce this appointment. We recently concluded a nationwide search involving some of the brightest minds in the business. Yet, we realized that the best candidate to lead us forward, and also among the nation’s leading lights, was already on our campus,” said Steger.

“Professor Midkiff is a recognized authority on wireless networks, mobile systems, and pervasive computing,” said Steger. “He is eminently qualified and has the vision to serve as the university’s next vice president for information technology and CIO. With his extensive academic background, he can address university computing, telecommunications, and network needs from multiple standpoints . . . as a researcher, faculty member, department head, and senior administrator.”

“I am very excited about this opportunity. Information technology has never been more important to an organization than now, especially a research university,” said Midkiff. “High performance computing is fundamental and essential to the research endeavor. In addition, we have already demonstrated the important linkage between information technology and the learning-teaching environment. I look forward to news ways in which we can apply technology to this central and vital component of our mission.”

Richard Benson, the dean of the College of Engineering, said, “This is a bitter-sweet moment for the college. Professor Midkiff has distinguished himself as a superb department head. The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering has thrived under his leadership. Happily, we will still have a close partnership with him in his new role as vice president for information technology. I can’t imagine a better person to build upon the work of Erv Blythe, and to keep Virginia Tech as an innovator in the use of information technology in support of our research and teaching.”

Midkiff arrived at Virginia Tech in 1986 and has developed and taught undergraduate and graduate courses in networking, wireless networks and mobile systems, network applications, and telecommunications.

He was appointed head of the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2009, one of Virginia Tech’s larger units with 600 undergraduates, 400 graduate students, and more than $29 million in externally funded research.

Early in his career he worked at the legendary Bell Laboratories from 1979 to 1982 and was a visiting research associate at Carnegie Mellon University from 1985 to 1986. From Sept. 2006 until Sept. 2009, Midkiff was on special assignment as a program director at the National Science Foundation (NSF) before returning to Virginia Tech as department head.

While at the NSF he helped lead efforts to expand research into cyber-physical systems to improve the design of engineered systems with embedded computing and networking.

He is the author of more than 125 peer-reviewed journal and conference publications. He received Virginia Tech’s XCaliber Award for teaching with technology in 2004 and the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching from the College of Engineering in 2005.

Midkiff received the Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree, summa cum laude, in electrical engineering and computer science from Duke University in 1979, the Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1980, and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Duke University in 1985. He was an MCNC Fellow during his Ph.D. studies at Duke.

Midkiff is a Senior Member of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, Tau Beta Pi, and Eta Kappa Nu honorary societies.

Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.