Paul Jones, director of ibiblio and clinical associate professor at the School of Information and Library Science and the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, has received a 2010 IBM Faculty Award for $29,000. The Faculty Awards are competitive international awards that recognize full-time professors who have made significant contributions in their field, RENCI, was the other.
SILS Dean and Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor Gary Marchionini was the last person in the School to receive the award in 2006. He said he used the money for video-retrieval research, which also helped support a doctoral student with her dissertation.
“This is essential because virtualization is in a big time of turmoil, and we need to maintain strong collaborations with our partners,” he said. “Typically I can send people to important meetings, but this is a time when the state budget money is not there. It is very important to show up once a year and present the results of our work at conferences.”
Jones said the award money will be used to hire graduate research assistants to help with the virtualization of ibiblio.org, and to help with travel expenses related to conferences and trainings for research advancement.
“They don’t give these awards to just anyone,” Marchionini said. “It is a feather for the School and a feather for the research team. It is an honor, and I’m thrilled for Paul and ibiblio. He has been doing this work for years now, and it is great to see him earning greater recognition.”
The IBM Faculty Awards are given annually to foster collaboration between IBM and researchers at leading universities worldwide and to stimulate growth in the areas of computer science and technology. Candidates must be nominated by an IBM employee with common interests.
“Paul Jones has been a pillar of support with IBM projects and a friend of IBM for many years,” said Andy Rindos, Head of RTP Center for Advanced Studies. “He is a leader in the open source community, and fostering and promoting open source is very important to IBM.”
Rindos also said Jones helps cultivate a positive relationship between UNC at Chapel Hill and IBM, and has created an environment conducive to IBM recruiting on campus. Rindos said IBM hires many University students to work at RTP, historically the largest IBM site in the Americas.
“It is an honor to receive this award and to see the School and the University receive industry support and recognition,” Jones said. “Keeping a good relationship with IBM helps provide faculty members opportunities to collaborate, gives graduate students opportunities for research and internships and gives graduates from our programs job prospects.”
Jones is one of 95 award recipients worldwide and one of only two recipients from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Patrick Dreher, chief domain scientist for cloud computing at the Renaissance Computing Institute.
