Iowa State’s new director for academic information technology said he wants to work with administration and instructors to determine the best uses for technology at ISU.

Peter Siegel has been appointed as the new director for academic information technology. The appointment is effective July 15.

Siegel is currently the director of networking and computer systems at Cornell University Information Technologies, in Ithaca, N.Y. He will succeed George Strawn, who has been on leave from ISU since 1995 to serve with the National Science Foundation.

“Peter Siegel’s appointment as director for academic information technology is great news for Iowa State,” said ISU Provost John Kozak in a press release. “He will bring to our campus an outstanding background in research-related super computing, as well as solid experience providing computing support for a large university.”

As director, Siegel will oversee a staff of 65 at the Computation Center, Iowa State’s center for academic computing and information technologies.

The challenge for Siegel lies in sorting out which technologies will be useful to the ISU community.

“Because everyone has so much knowledge, we need to determine what people want to do with the technology,” Siegel said. “We need to provide ways for students to learn more effectively.”

Siegel said he is looking forward to the sense of collaboration at ISU.

“To get important projects done, everyone has to work together,” Siegel said. “So many IT [information technology] issues are pervasive. I was impressed with such a clear focus among everyone I met [at ISU]. There was no question of the role of IT, only a question of how it can benefit the university.”

Siegel is currently responsible for Cornell University’s computing systems, as well as the campus communications infrastructure. Previously, he was executive director of the Cornell Theory Center for high performance computing and deputy director of the Cornell National Supercomputer facility.

Siegel has a B.A. in linguistics from the University of Hawaii, as well as master of art degrees in logical theory and semantic and syntactic theory from Cornell University and the University of Hawaii, respectively.

There is one thing about his moving to Iowa State that Siegel isn’t anticipating as eagerly. “I’m not looking forward to all the tornadoes,” he joked.