SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Liz Liddy, dean of the Syracuse University School of Information Studies (iSchool), plans to retire and will step down as dean at the end of the 2018-19 academic year.
Liddy announced her intention at the iSchool’s opening convocation on Friday, Syracuse said in a news release.
The search to identify the next iSchool dean “will commence this academic year,” the university said.
Liddy became dean of the iSchool in February 2008, a post she temporarily left in January 2015, when Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud appointed her to serve as interim vice chancellor and provost.
Liddy served in that position until May 2016, when she returned to her post as dean of the iSchool.
Years at iSchool
Liddy has spent more than 30 years as a faculty member and researcher at the iSchool, per the release. As dean, she presided over the iSchool during a period of “tremendous growth,” increasing undergraduate enrollment 71 percent and graduate enrollment 66 percent.
During her tenure, the iSchool created New York’s first graduate-certificate program in data science, and the school recently announced a new undergraduate minor in data analytics. In addition, she has helped raise more than $26.2 million for funding research and development.
Liddy currently serves on the board of the Madden School of Business at Le Moyne College, which led to a partnership between the iSchool and the Madden School that provides students access to certificate programs and individual courses in the partner school, “which are beyond what their home school offers.”
She was the founding director of the iSchool’s Center for Natural Language Processing (CNLP). The CNLP “advanced the development” of human-like, language-understanding software capabilities for government, commercial, and consumer applications.
In addition to her role in academia, Liddy in 1994 founded and led a software startup company. As CEO of TextWise, Liddy grew its employee count to 50 workers.
The holder of eight software patents, Liddy has led 70 research projects, authored more than 110 research papers, and “given hundreds of conference presentations on her work.”
Liddy began her Syracuse University career as a visiting assistant professor in 1983. She earned a doctor of philosophy degree in information transfer from the iSchool in 1988.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
Photo credit: Syracuse University website
