Administrative Activities

Chair, Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics
Dr. Cooper served as Chair of Rice’s Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics from January 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020. In this role, he had overall responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the department. As chair, he focused on the development of the undergraduate major in Operations Research and on its faculty hiring plans.

Associate Dean for Research, School of Engineering
Dr. Cooper served as Associate Dean for Research of Rice’s Brown School of Engineering from July 2012 to June 2018. In that capacity, he provided advice to the Dean and the faculty on matters of research and policy. In this role, he helped to formulate Rice University’s Data Science Initiative, a $45 million, university wide initiative aimed at improving our efforts in both the practice of data-driven knowledge discovery and the development of fundamental theoretical and practical underpinnings for data science.

Co-Director, Ken Kennedy Institute for Information Technology
Dr. Cooper served as co-director of Rice’s Ken Kennedy Institute for Information Technology from July 2015 to July 2019. The Kennedy Institute is an inter-disciplinary institute that works to build Rice’s research community in areas related to information technology, with particular emphasis on high-performance computing and data science. The Kennedy Institute works closely with Rice’s Office of Information Technology on policies that affect campus research computing.

Rice Data Science Initiative
Dr. Cooper co-chaired, with Rachel Kimbro, the Faculty Search and Programming Committee for Rice University’s $45 million Data Science Initiative. This appointment began in May 2016 and ran through June 2019.In the Fall 2015 semester, he chaired the Provost’s Advisory Committee on Data Science. From January 2014 to May 2015, he worked closely with Dan Carson, David Leebron, Marie Lynn Miranda, Jan Odegard, and Moshe Vardi to formulate Rice’s Data Science Initiative.

Chief Marshal, Rice University
For a decade, Dr. Cooper served as the Chief Marshal of Rice University, in which capacity he had overall responsibility for Rice’s several Commencement ceremonies. His time in this office included both the celebration of Rice’s Centennial in 2012 and theĀ  complete revision of Commencement in 2014. Prior to serving as Chief Marshal, Cooper served as Head Security Marshal for many years.

Chair, Department of Computer Science
Dr. Cooper served as Chair of Rice’s Computer Science Department from July 2002 to June 2008. During that period, he had overall responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the department, as well as its long-term vision. As Chair, Cooper oversaw the hiring of seven faculty members and numerous staff members.

Duncan Hall, Rice University
Dr. Cooper was involved in the design and construction of Rice University’s Duncan Hall. He was on the committee that formulated the program for the building. After that, he served as User Liaison for the design and construction process. In that role, he was an active member of the design team and worked directly with both the design architects, John Outram and Associates of London, England; the architects of record, Kendall Heaton and Associates of Houston, Texas; as well as most of the major subcontractors. In addition, he was heavily involved in the Campaign for Computational Engineering, which raised $45 million for construction and programmatic expenses.

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