Libeskind-Hadas Elected to CRA Board

Harvey Mudd College Computer Science Professor Ran Libeskind-Hadas has been elected to serve on the Computing Research Association (CRA) board, marking the first time a faculty member from a primarily undergraduate institution has held the position.

“CRA supports undergraduate research in a number of ways (e.g., through the CRA Undergraduate Research Award program as well as through their CRA-Education Committee),” says Libeskind-Hadas, R. Michael Shanahan Professor of Computer Science. “However, in broader policy discussions, four-year colleges have been unrepresented. I hope to be able to call attention to the need to continue encouraging and supporting undergraduate research in order to maintain a healthy pipeline of students going on to do graduate work in computing and to provide information and resources for graduate students who are interested in pursuing careers at PUIs.”

Libeskind-Hadas will attend committee meetings twice a year to discuss ways to continue promoting the health of computing research in North America.

“CRA provides information sessions on Capitol Hill, advice and position statements to cognizant federal agencies, supports a number of subcommittees (CRA-Education, CRA Women, among others), and conducts studies on various aspects of the computing research enterprise in academia and industry,” he says.

Harvey Mudd joins research universities, private research labs and a small number of other undergraduate colleges as a member of CRA.