As you may have seen in President Whitten’s recent announcement, we are moving forward with the next round of hiring for our Bloomington Faculty 100 initiative. This effort will recruit new faculty members in the cutting-edge areas of microelectronics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, cybersecurity, and quantum technologies.
There are two primary goals with these strategic recruitments:
- Expanding our capacity to pursue research priorities defined through our 2030 planning process, including using AI to address complex problems and improve the human experience and harnessing quantum technology for discoveries in new materials, information science, and cybersecurity.
- Fostering faculty development of new academic programs or growth in existing areas projected to see greater student interest and aligned with workforce demands.
These new hires will build particularly on existing and emerging faculty strengths in the College of Arts and Sciences, Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering as well as the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of much of today’s research and teaching, many of these hires may hold joint appointments across academic units. We have been working closely with academic and research deans in each of these schools, along with department chairs and individual faculty, IU Research, and many others to identify the most promising opportunities for innovation.
Expected searches to launch this fall include:
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning, applied towards a wide range of problem sets (2 positions in Luddy and the College)
- Microelectronics, especially the design and development of chips that are less susceptible to extreme environments such as radiation or extreme temperatures (5 positions in Luddy and the College)
- Cybersecurity, from both technical and policy perspectives (3 positions in Luddy and O'Neill)
- Quantum science and simulation with a focus on material design (4 positions in the College and Luddy)
I am confident these targeted hires will help us significantly expand IU’s leadership with new technologies, provide a greater volume of work of strategic importance, and lead to denser, more impactful collaboration within and among schools and departments. These new faculty have the power to amplify the translational impact of our research, as well as to greatly expand the teaching and learning opportunities for our students.
As you may recall, all Faculty 100 hires are new searches that are strategic additions to our current faculty ranks and aligned with IUB 2030 goals. Strategic investments always require selecting some priorities over others, and I greatly appreciate the leadership of our deans and accomplished research faculty in identifying these areas. I am confident these choices will ultimately benefit us all, both through new discoveries and their thoughtful applications, as well as bringing new resources and collaborative opportunities for our current faculty.
I also understand that some have questioned IU’s focus on research related to national security. As a public, state-funded institution, IU has a long history of robust research collaborations with numerous state and U.S. government entities, including those that are important for the Department of Defense. Current investments and externally funded projects range from concussion research, cold water tolerance, classification approaches using AI, to the dynamics of cyclone formation. Even funding for our nine Title VI language and area studies centers — some of the best in the country — are responsive to national security needs. As we have always done before, we continue to support the broader needs of our society, while ensuring that our faculty retain full autonomy over all academic and research endeavors.
Along with the Presidential Diversity Hiring Initiative and ongoing hiring opportunities within schools and colleges, the Faculty 100 continues to be an additional means to grow our faculty and our impact for the state of Indiana and beyond. The initial faculty hires through the Faculty 100 initiative arrived on campus this fall and are already contributing to IU, with additional new colleagues expected to begin in the upcoming spring and fall terms. We expect to announce further new faculty searches, also aligned with key research priorities, as part of the Faculty 100 initiative in the coming days.
As we recruit these new colleagues together in the coming weeks and months, I look forward to amplifying our success in these key research areas and positioning the Bloomington campus to continue leading into the future.
