The Institute - March 2021 - TI-6

Sethuraman
Panchanathan

ethuraman " Panch " Panchanathan left his
academic career at Arizona State University in
June to start a six-year appointment as director
of the U.S. National Science Foundation. There
the IEEE Fellow oversees the foundation's 2,100
employees and its day-to-day operations.
Panchanathan is also responsible for directing the agency's
mission, including supporting all fields of fundamental science and engineering in such areas as artificial intelligence
and quantum computing.
He also has a large budget to manage: US $8.3 billion. That
is about 25 percent of the total amount the U.S. government
spends to support basic research. The money goes to nearly
2,000 colleges, universities, and institutions across the country.
TI-6

MAR 2021

THE INSTITUTE

Panchanathan is no stranger to the NSF. He was appointed in
2014 to serve on its National Science Board, a 25-member group
that establishes the foundation's overall policies.
He spent 23 years at ASU in Phoenix, where he developed
people-centric technologies and fostered innovative research.
He helped found the university's School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering and its Center for
Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing. He also led its Knowledge
Enterprise, which supports entrepreneurs with research,
strategic partnerships, international development, and
other activities.
Panchanathan holds a bachelor's degree in physics from Vivekananda College-now the University of
Madras-in India, and a bachelor's degree in electronics

STEPHEN VOSS/NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

Director Outlines His
Vision for U.S. National
Science Foundation

https://www.nsf.gov/nsb/members/current_members/panchanathan.jsp https://www.nsf.gov/nsb/members/current_members/panchanathan.jsp https://www.asu.edu/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Science_Board https://cidse.engineering.asu.edu/ https://cidse.engineering.asu.edu/ https://cubic.asu.edu/ https://cubic.asu.edu/ https://research.asu.edu/about-us https://research.asu.edu/about-us https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Madras https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Madras

The Institute - March 2021

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