UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Michael McNeese, former associate dean for research, graduate studies and academic affairs at Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), has been promoted to senior associate dean in the College of IST.
“This promotion recognizes Dr. McNeese’s extensive academic and administrative contributions to the college and his leadership in the growth of the college,” said David Hall, dean of the College of IST. “His new duties will include overseeing the research of the college, academic affairs covering faculty council, oversight of the promotion and tenure process, the annual faculty evaluation for all faculty and oversight of graduate studies, and online graduate and undergraduate education program.”
Before joining Penn State in 2000, McNeese was director of the Collaborative Systems Technology Laboratory and a senior scientist at the Crew System Interface Division, Air Force Research Laboratory, at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He is widely published and has published two edited books: “New Trends in Collaborative Activities: Dynamics in Complex Systems” and “Cognitive Systems Engineering in Military Aviation Environments: Avoiding Cogminutia Fragmentosa." His most recent project is overseeing a new special issue (Nancy Cooke and Michael McNeese, co-editors) titled “The Cognitive Science of Cyber Defense Analysis." This issue is in press and will appear shortly in the journal ICST (Institute of Computer Science, Social Informatics and Telecommunications) Transactions on Safety and Security.
"I look at the promotion to senior associate dean as a unique opportunity for practicing the presence of what I call 'Super-Vision,' albeit not the hackneyed supervision you might think of, but the idea of generating and implementing the Super-Vision that can propel the College of IST towards reaching what is possible in the year 2020 less that seven years from now," McNeese said. "When it comes to research, education and technology, I am a strong believer in the power of human imagination and creativity."
McNeese, who has a doctorate in cognitive science from Vanderbilt University, studies how human-computer interaction and intelligent systems can improve naturalistic decision making, situation awareness and team cognition. He utilizes multiple methodological approaches inclusive of laboratory experimentation, cognitive systems engineering/design and ethnography. His research is highly trans-disciplinary and seeks new discoveries within the confluences of cognition, computation, collaboration and context for given fields of practice. He has studied domains including command, control, communication and intelligence operations; image and intelligent analyst workers; aviation/fighter pilots; emergency crisis management; and cyber security analysts.
McNeese was promoted to full professor with tenure at the College of IST in 2007. In January 2008, he was promoted to the role of professor in charge (the equivalent of a department chair). In February 2011, he was named as the associate dean for research, graduate studies and academic affairs.
"As we visualize our future in 2020, it is my distinct goal to provide leadership in the College of IST that develops sound strategic initiatives that seed progress that is culturally current, technologically sophisticated and socially conscious," McNeese said. "My ideal is to garner an IST community of radical thinkers who can transform leading edges into new contours that shape who we are now and implement the visions that will resonate in 2020."