Peter Siegel, an expert in university information and learning technologies and the chief information officer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will be UC Davis' new vice provost for Information and Educational Technology and chief information officer beginning Aug. 15.

As vice provost, Siegel will be responsible for providing the leadership necessary to assure the effective and strategic deployment of information and educational technology to the campus's academic and administrative operations. He also will be responsible for coordinating technology between the Davis campus and the UC Davis Health System.

Siegel will manage the myriad forms of information technology used throughout the campus, including computing systems and data, voice and video communication services. The UC Davis Information and Educational Technology division has 275 employees and an annual budget of $32 million. The position is part of the chancellor's cabinet, and reports to both the chancellor and provost.

"Pete is quite a catch for the Davis campus," said Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef. "He comes from a university that is regarded as a national leader in the area of information technology. With the breadth of experience over his career, he'll be off and running the moment he arrives."

Siegel succeeds Peter Yellowlees, who has served as interim vice provost of IET for the past year. Yellowlees will return to his appointments as a professor of psychiatry and director of academic information systems at the UC Davis Health System. The vice provost position was previously held by John Bruno from 1999 to April 2005, when he rejoined the computer science faculty.

"I'm grateful for all of the advancements that Peter Yellowlees has so quickly implemented in campus technology. And we're excited to welcome Pete to our campus because we know he will continue this great progress," said Provost Virginia Hinshaw. "All of us live in an increasingly 'electronic world' and Pete's expertise and experience definitely will enable UC Davis to thrive and lead in that world."

Siegel has been CIO at the University of Illinois since August 2000. While there, he reorganized that campus's central computing, educational technologies, classroom technologies, computer labs, data and voice communications units into an integrated information technologies and educational services unit.

Throughout his career, Siegel has been involved in both national and state professional organizations, as well as in nationally recognized technology partnerships with other major research universities. He is a member of the Educause-Internet2 Security Task Force Executive Committee, and is working with the American Council on Education and Educause on security policy issues. He speaks regularly on computer privacy and security issues, collaboration technologies, and the role of technology planning in the academy.

Prior to joining Illinois, Siegel was director of Academic Information Technology at the Iowa State University of Science and Technology. Siegel also spent more than 25 years at Cornell University in positions of increasing responsibility, including serving as director of the Cornell National Supercomputer Facility and executive director of the Cornell Center for Theory and Simulation in Science and Engineering, a national high-performance computing resource.

Siegel earned a master's degree in linguistics from Cornell University, where he also pursued doctoral studies. He also holds both master's and bachelor's degrees from the University of Hawaii.

"Innovative institutions like UC Davis understand the value of technology in enhancing collaboration on campus and with leading partners around the world to the benefit of the community at large," Siegel said. "I look forward to partnering with innovators across the campus to advance our own use of technology in all aspects of our academic mission."

"I'm grateful to Dr. Yellowlees for his leadership in strengthening the ties between the Davis campus and the health system; I am excited at the opportunity to help Davis use technology to expand its reach — solving important societal problems and improving the lives of the people we serve."

As vice provost at UC Davis, Siegel will earn an annual salary of $250,000.