UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State has selected Vasant Honavar as the inaugural vice provost for artificial intelligence (AI) to guide a comprehensive AI strategy and advance the University's leadership in human-centered and ethical AI innovation across teaching, learning, research and operations.
Honavar, who currently serves as the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Biomedical Data Sciences and Artificial Intelligence in the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and a professor in the Department of Informatics and Intelligent Systems in the College of Information Sciences and Technology, will begin his appointment on June 1.
“I am delighted Vasant will be stepping into this critical new leadership role as Penn State continues to integrate AI into our teaching, learning, research and operations,” said Executive Vice President and Provost Fotis Sotiropoulos. “With a distinguished career devoted to leadership, scholarship, research and teaching in AI and data sciences, Vasant brings both deep expertise and a commitment to people. His vision for what artificial intelligence can — and should — be at Penn State and across higher education is inspiring and will help position our University to lead with purpose at the intersection of technology, ethics and human impact.”
In this new position, Honavar, who will report to Senior Vice Provost and Chief of Staff Josh Davis, will collaboratively develop and implement Penn State’s AI Transformation initiative, working closely with Sotiropoulos and leaders across colleges, campuses and administrative units to ensure that Penn State’s AI strategy aligns with the University’s institutional values and long‑term strategic goals. Honavar will collaborate with the AI Coordinating Council, the AI Student Advisory Group, and other AI working groups and advisory bodies.
“I am honored to serve as vice provost for artificial intelligence at Penn State,” Honavar said. “At a time when AI is reshaping discovery, learning, creative endeavors and the nature of work, Penn State has a unique opportunity, indeed, a responsibility — to lead by reimagining the land-grant mission in a world being transformed by AI. I look forward to working with University leadership, faculty, staff and students to build a coordinated and impactful AI strategy that advances research and education and delivers tangible benefits to communities across the commonwealth and beyond.”
To help guide this work, Crystal Ramsay has been appointed assistant vice provost for AI and will lead the University’s new AI Center of Excellence for Teaching and Learning, reporting to Honavar. The center will serve as the hub for Penn State’s AI literacy program, an institution‑wide effort to equip every student, faculty and staff member with opportunities to achieve foundational and advanced AI fluency. Ramsay, who currently serves as senior director for Teaching and Learning with Technology, is a founding member and continues to serve on the AI Coordinating Council. Over the past year, she has helped to shepherd the development of the AI Literacy Framework and learning opportunities like AI Essentials and programing for New Student Orientation for the Penn State community.
Honavar’s key priorities in the vice provost for AI role include:
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Integrating University‑wide initiatives including AI literacy, experiential learning curricular and research innovation
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Expanding AI literacy, AI competencies, AI upskilling and equitable access to AI initiatives to empower students, faculty and staff to thrive in a world being transformed by AI
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Fostering responsible and ethical adoption of AI tools and platforms in research, curricula and operations across the University
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Expanding partnerships across academia, industry, government, nonprofits and community organizations to strengthen experiential learning, collaborative research and workforce development in AI-related fields
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Strengthening Penn State’s national leadership in AI foundations, human-centered AI and AI-enabled discoveries across the sciences
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Expanding Penn State’s land grant mission through AI applications in healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture and related areas
Honavar comes to the role with over three decades of experience in AI research, interdisciplinary curriculum development, institutional capacity-building and leadership, and interdisciplinary leadership. His research and teaching interests span foundations of AI — machine learning, knowledge representation, causal modeling and inference — data sciences, data and computational infrastructure for collaborative science, and their applications in bioinformatics and health informatics. He is a nationally renowned scholar with over 300 scientific publications and has led or co-led research and training projects funded by grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Defense totaling over $100 million. Honavar will continue to maintain an active research program while serving in his new role.
Honavar joined Penn State in 2013 as the Edward Frymoyer Chair of Information Sciences and Technology and currently serves as director of strategic initiatives in the Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences. He is also the founding director of the Penn State Center for Artificial Intelligence Foundations and Scientific Applications which brings together faculty expertise to advance the development and applications of AI methods and tools to accelerate discovery across life sciences, materials sciences, health sciences and related fields.
Honavar’s leadership experience includes:
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Co-principal investigator of a $20 million NSF National Synthesis Center for Emergence in Cellular and Molecular Sciences, which is designed to catalyze multidisciplinary teams to answer the most fundamental questions in cellular and molecular biology by leveraging disparate data sets and modern AI methods
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Co-principal investigator of the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub, a consortium of academic, industrial and non-profit organizations focused on translational data science research and applications in areas of national and societal importance
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Steering committee member of the Ecosystem for Regional Networking, a consortium of academic institutions focused on developing computing and data infrastructure for scientific collaboration across institutional and disciplinary boundaries
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Chair of the Convergence of Data and Computing Working Group of the Computing Community Consortium, where he led influential white papers articulating community research agendas on topics such as AI for science
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Leader in AI and data sciences research capacity-building for the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences as an associate director from 2014 to 2024
At Penn State, Honavar has worked to expand AI educational offerings by co-leading the development of the curricula for the bachelor of science in artificial intelligence methods and applications, as well as an inter-college undergraduate degree in data sciences. He also co-led an NIH-funded biomedical data sciences interdisciplinary doctoral training program — drawing on faculty expertise across multiple academic programs and campuses.
Prior to joining Penn State, Honavar served on the faculty of computer science at Iowa State University from 1990 to 2013, where he co-led the development of one of the first doctoral programs in bioinformatics and computational biology. Honavar also served as a program director in the NSF’s Division of Information and Intelligent Systems, where he led the Big Data Science and Engineering Program from 2010 to 2013.
Honavar was recognized with the NSF Director’s Award for Superior Accomplishment in 2013 for his leadership of the Big Data Program and was elected as a fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science for his contributions to leadership and research in data science.
Honavar earned both a doctorate and master’s degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin Madison, a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Drexel University and a bachelor’s degree in electronics engineering from Bangalore University.
To learn more about AI at Penn State, visit the University's AI website.