Titles

• Senior Global Futures Scientist, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory
• Director, National Science Foundation
• Former Executive Vice President, Knowledge Enterprise, Arizona State University
• Former Chief Research and Innovation Officer, Arizona State University
• Foundation Chair, School of Computing, Informatics and Decision Systems Engineering, Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering (on leave)
• Affiliated Faculty, Center for Biodiversity Outcomes, Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation

Biography

In June, 2020, Dr. Sethuraman “Panch” Panchanathan was appointed by U.S. President Donald Trump as Director of the National Science Foundation. Panch previously spent more than 20 years in leadership positions at Arizona State University, including service as Executive Vice President of ASU’s Knowledge Enterprise and Chief Research and Technology Officer for ASU. He is officially on an extended leave of absence from the university as he devotes his time to advancing the U.S. science and technology agenda on a national and global scale.

 

Education

• PhD, University of Ottawa, 1989
• MS, Indian Institute of Technology, 1986
• BE, Indian Institute of Science, 1984

Expertise

• ubiquitous computing
• multimedia
• communication
• analysis and recognition of face, gait, emotions, events and activities
• haptic user interfaces
• media processor designs
• image analysis
• genetics
• information theory
• data analysis
• data mining
• emerging technologies
• informatics