J. S. Vitter
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Jeffrey Scott Vitter is a U.S.
computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...
and academic administrator. Born in 1955 in New Orleans, Vitter has served in several senior higher education administration posts. He is a former chancellor of the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). He assumed the chancellor position on January 1, 2016. His formal investiture to the chancellorship took place on November 10, 2016, at the University of Mississippi's Oxford Campus.


Education

Vitter was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. He earned a Bachelor of Science in
mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
with highest honors from the University of Notre Dame in 1977, a Ph.D. in computer science from
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
under the supervision of Donald Knuth in 1980 and a master of business administration from
Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
in 2002.


Career

From 1980 to 1992, Vitter progressed through the faculty ranks in the Department of Computer Science at
Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
in Providence, Rhode Island. He was awarded tenure in 1985 at the age of 29. At
Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
in
Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...
from 1993 to 2002, Vitter held a distinguished professorship as the Gilbert, Louis, and Edward Lehrman Professor. He chaired the Department of Computer Science for eight and a half years, increased external research funding to 250%, and led the department to a top-20 national ranking. From 2002 to 2008, Vitter was the Frederick Hovde Dean of the College of Science at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, where he led the development of two strategic plans, establishing a dual focus of excellence in core departments and in multidisciplinary collaborations. He oversaw net growth by roughly 60 faculty members and launched the collaborative design of an innovative outcomes-based college curriculum. Vitter served at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas as provost and executive vice president for academics from 2008 to 2009, leading the 48,000-student university in the development of the institution's academic master plan and launching initiatives advancing faculty start-up allocations, multidisciplinary priorities and diversity. He also oversaw A&M's campus in Doha, Qatar. From 2010 to 2015, Vitter was provost and executive vice chancellor and Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas in
Lawrence, Kansas Lawrence is the county seat of Douglas County, Kansas, Douglas County, Kansas, United States, and the sixth-largest city in the state. It is in the northeastern sector of the state, astride Interstate 70, between the Kansas River, Kansas and Waka ...
. As provost, Vitter was the chief academic and operations officer for the Lawrence and Edwards campuses. He co-chaired the development of the KU strategic plan ''Bold Aspirations'' and oversaw the creation of the first-ever university-wide KU Core curriculum, expansion of the Schools of Engineering and Business, boosting multidisciplinary research and funding around four strategic initiatives, major growth of technology commercialization and corporate partnerships, and administrative reorganization and efficiency. Vitter spent sabbatical leaves at the
Mathematical Sciences Research Institute The Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath), formerly the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), is an independent nonprofit mathematical research institution on the University of California campus in Berkeley, Califo ...
in Berkeley, CA; INRIA in Rocquencourt, France; Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris; Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey;
Aarhus University Aarhus University ( da, Aarhus Universitet, abbreviated AU) is a public research university with its main campus located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Gr ...
in Aarhus, Denmark, and INRIA in Sophia Antipolis, France. On October 29, 2015, Vitter was unanimously named as the 17th chancellor of the University of Mississippi by the Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL). He began duties as chancellor and Distinguished Professor of Computer & Information Science on January 1, 2016. He introduced a strategic plan named ''Flagship Forward'', with initiatives including a $1 billion building program, multidisciplinary research networks of faculty called Flagship Constellations, annual Technology Summits, major community partnerships through the M Partner program, establishment of the state's first Department of Biomedical Engineering, and extended capacity and reach of the University of Mississippi Medical Center. The university began to look at
Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between ...
symbols on campus and established an Office of Diversity and Community Engagement. He unified fundraising across the campuses and led the university to its strongest three-year period of fundraising. In December 2018, the university's status as a Carnegie R1 research university, initially attained in January 2016, was reaffirmed. In November 2018, Vitter announced that he would step down as chancellor to become a regular faculty member on January 4, 2019. Since July 2020 he is Distinguished Professor Emeritus and spends his time on consulting, working with a startup, and serving as adjunct professor at Tulane University.


Academic interests

Vitter is a
computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...
with over 350 books, journals, and conference publications, primarily on the design and mathematical
analysis of algorithms In computer science, the analysis of algorithms is the process of finding the computational complexity of algorithms—the amount of time, storage, or other resources needed to execute them. Usually, this involves determining a function that re ...
dealing with big data and data science. His Google Scholar h-index is in the 70s, and he is an ISI highly cited researcher. He helped establish the field of I/O algorithms (a.k.a. "external memory algorithms") as a rigorous area of active investigation. He has made fundamental contributions in databases;
compressed data structures The term compressed data structure arises in the computer science subfields of algorithms, data structures, and theoretical computer science. It refers to a data structure whose operations are roughly as fast as those of a conventional data structu ...
and indexing; data compression, including
adaptive Huffman coding Adaptive Huffman coding (also called Dynamic Huffman coding) is an adaptive coding technique based on Huffman coding. It permits building the code as the symbols are being transmitted, having no initial knowledge of source distribution, that allows ...
, arithmetic coding,
image compression Image compression is a type of data compression applied to digital images, to reduce their cost for storage or transmission. Algorithms may take advantage of visual perception and the statistical properties of image data to provide superior r ...
, and
video compression In information theory, data compression, source coding, or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation. Any particular compression is either lossy or lossless. Lossless compression ...
; hashing and search
data structures In computer science, a data structure is a data organization, management, and storage format that is usually chosen for efficient access to data. More precisely, a data structure is a collection of data values, the relationships among them, a ...
;
randomized algorithm A randomized algorithm is an algorithm that employs a degree of randomness as part of its logic or procedure. The algorithm typically uses uniformly random bits as an auxiliary input to guide its behavior, in the hope of achieving good performan ...
s; sampling and random variate generation;
prediction A prediction (Latin ''præ-'', "before," and ''dicere'', "to say"), or forecast, is a statement about a future event or data. They are often, but not always, based upon experience or knowledge. There is no universal agreement about the exact ...
and machine learning; and
average-case complexity In computational complexity theory, the average-case complexity of an algorithm is the amount of some computational resource (typically time) used by the algorithm, averaged over all possible inputs. It is frequently contrasted with worst-case comp ...
.J. S. Vitter and P. Flajolet
Average-case Analysis of Algorithms and Data Structures
Chapter 9 in ''Handbook of Theoretical Computer Science, Volume A: Algorithms and Complexity,'' edited by Jan van Leeuwen, Elsevier and MIT Press, 1990, 431-524.
He also does genealogy research on th
Vitter.org
website.


Personal

Vitter and his wife Sharon Weaver Vitter have three children: Jillian, J. Scott Jr. and Audrey. He is a brother of former U.S. Senator David Vitter of Louisiana. He and Sharon established the Vitter-Weaver family genealogy site a
Vitter.org


References


External links


Professional website: csci.cs.olemiss.edu/faculty/vitter/
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vitter, Jeffrey 1955 births Living people American computer scientists People from New Orleans University of Notre Dame alumni Stanford University School of Engineering alumni Fuqua School of Business alumni Brown University faculty Duke University faculty Purdue University faculty Texas A&M University faculty University of Kansas faculty Chancellors of the University of Mississippi Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Fellow Members of the IEEE Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science