Building Research Excellence: Reflections on Alan Dorsey's Leadership

Timothy Chester

I remember the fall of 2011 clearly. Alan Dorsey was interviewing to become Dean of Franklin College, the University of Georgia’s largest and most academically diverse college. After the usual pleasantries, Alan shifted the conversation toward research infrastructure. A physicist by training, he understood the strategic value of high-performance computing and wanted to know how a partnership with my team could help advance the college’s research agenda. He got the job and spent the next decade leading the college through substantial research growth and transformation. When his tenure as Dean ended, Alan joined my organization as Associate CIO for Research, where he led our HPC operations with the same clarity and conviction he brought to Franklin. Now, two years later, he’s returning to the faculty as a Simons Foundation grantee. In today’s Dispatch, we reflect on what we learned under Alan’s leadership and where we’re headed next as we build on that foundation.