Dr. Jeffrey Vitter Presented with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award by Marquis Who's Who

Dr. Jeffrey Vitter is endorsed by Marquis Who's Who as a leader in the field of computer science and higher education.

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Oct 15, 2019, 14:10 ET

OXFORD, Miss., Oct. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Dr. Jeffrey Vitter with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Dr. Vitter celebrates nearly 40 years in the fields of computer science and higher education, in which he has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and successes. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.

Dr. Vitter has garnered a laudable reputation as Distinguished Professor of Computer and Information Science at the University of Mississippi, where he previously served as the 17^th chancellor from 2016 until 2019. He previously served as provost, executive vice chancellor, and Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas, worked on at Texas A&M University between 2008 and 2010 in various roles as provost, executive vice president for academics, and professor. Dr. Vitter served as the Frederick L. Hovde Dean of the College of Science at Purdue University from 2002 to 2008, and as chair of the Department of Computer Science and co-director for the Center for Geometric and Biological Computing at Duke University between 1993 and 2002, where he held a distinguished professorship as the Gilbert, Louis and Edward Lehrman Professor of Computer Science.

Dr. Vitter first entered the field of academia because of his passion for the power of higher education to transform the lives of students. He began his professional career in 1980 on the faculty in computer science at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, holding professorships of ascending responsibility until 1993 when he went to Duke University. Dr. Vitter first became involved in computer science as an assistant performance analyst on behalf of Standard Oil Company in San Francisco during the summers of 1976 and 1977. Throughout the length of his tenure in academia, he has held numerous visiting and adjunct professorships as well as consulting positions on behalf of such organizations as AT&T, Bell Labs, Center for Computing Sciences, Google, IBM, Institute for Defense Analyses, Microsoft, and Xerox PARC. He is on the board of Baidu USA, Center for Massive Data Algorithmics, and Institute of Fundamental Research on Data. He is an adjunct professor at Tulane University in his hometown of New Orleans.

A visionary leader, Dr. Vitter has made numerous contributions to higher education in his leadership at universities. He oversaw strategic planning and implementation in his various roles as chair, dean, provost, and most recently as chancellor at the University of Mississippi, contributing to the AAU and/or Carnegie R1 status of his universities. He is especially known for galvanizing broad activity across disciplinary structures to tackle important grand challenges, for which no one discipline has all the answers, and collaboration and cross-pollination are needed. At Ole Miss, he led the development of superlative multidisciplinary networks of faculty called Flagship Constellations, and he advanced much engagement with communities in the state via the M Partner program. A strong advocate for diversity, Dr. Vitter pioneered improved hiring processes that simultaneously advance diversity and excellence, which go hand in hand.

Before embarking upon his professional journey, Dr. Vitter pursued a formal education in his own right, attending the prestigious University of Notre Dame and graduating with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics, with highest honors, in 1977. He further studied at Stanford University, obtaining a Doctor of Philosophy in computer science under Donald Knuth in 1980, and two decades later he earned a Master of Business Administration at Duke University in 2002 while on the faculty there. To remain aware of developments in the field, Dr. Vitter maintains his professional affinity with various organizations, including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), from which he has held numerous positions of authority and gleaned numerous awards, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and the Computing Research Association, where he was a long-time board member.

Much sought-after for his scholarly opinion, Dr. Vitter has contributed voluminously to scientific journals. He has published over 350 book, journal, conference, and patent publications, and he has served as editor and guest editor for several journals. He served on the editorial boards of IEEE Transactions on Computers in 1987–1991, Communications of the ACM in 1988–1995, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Journal on Computing in 1989–1997, Algorithmica in 1994–2011, and Theory of Computing Systems in 1991–2014. He currently serves as an editor and advisor of PeerJ Computer Science and on the steering committee of IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics. In addition to his articles and editorial positions, Dr. Vitter has written and edited numerous books, most notably "The Design and Analysis of Coalesced Hashing" in 1987, "Efficient Algorithms for MPEG Video Compression" in 2002, "Algorithms and Data Structures for External Memory" in 2008, and "Academic Leadership in Higher Education: From the Top-down and the Bottom-up" in 2015.

In light of his innumerable accomplishments and innovations, Dr. Vitter has been the recipient of numerous accolades. In particular, he was bestowed with a Faculty Development Award by IBM in 1984, a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation in 1985, a Fulbright Scholarship in 1998, the Test of Time Award from ACM SIGMOD in 2009, and the CEO Award of Mississippi in 2017. He has been selected as a Fellow of prestigious organizations such the Simon Guggenheim Foundation in 1986, IEEE in 1993, ACM in 1996, the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2009, and the National Academy of Inventors in 2018. He has also been inducted into the notable honorific societies of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, and Phi Kappa Phi. Dr. Vitter, likewise, holds an honorary Master of Arts from Brown University as of 1986.

In recognition of outstanding contributions to his profession and the Marquis Who's Who community, Dr. Jeffrey Vitter has been featured on the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement website. Please visit www.ltachievers.com for more information about this honor.

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Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America^®, Marquis Who's Who^® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America^® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis^® publications may be visited at the official website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.

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