UMD Names New Vice President and CIO

The University of Maryland has named Jeff Hollingsworth, a longtime computer science professor, as its new vice president and chief information officer. Serving as interim CIO since June 2017, he will continue to lead the university’s IT strategy, infrastructure and services, and oversee the Division of Information Technology (DIT).

“The VP-CIO is critical to our success—modernizing and securing the tools we use every day and expanding our capabilities for the future,” said President Wallace D. Loh. “Jeff has done an outstanding job as interim vice president in translating his academic expertise into sound policy. We are in good hands.”

Hollingsworth will be responsible for the university’s overall technology environment, including critical IT services for research and teaching; administrative applications and infrastructure; information security and integrity; and broad technical support for faculty, staff and students. He will also oversee the Mid-Atlantic Crossroads – the MAX – the regional optical connection point that serves education and government agency needs for highly advanced network interconnections and services.

“By focusing on important issues like transparency, shared governance and investment in people, we've made great strides in our IT operations and infrastructure,” Hollingsworth said. “I’m excited to continue this important work alongside my talented colleagues in the Division of IT and across campus.”

As interim CIO, Hollingsworth oversaw the implementation of a mandatory multi-factor authentication system for faculty, staff and graduate assistants; worked with campus stakeholders and the University Senate to adopt a web accessibility policy; drove the deployment of a new phone system across campus; and arranged a move to new office space in the Discovery District to consolidate the division’s operations into one building.

Hollingsworth received his B.S. in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in computer sciences from the University of Wisconsin. He came to UMD as a professor in the Department of Computer Science in 1994 and was associate department chair from 2008–12. He has joint appointments in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Institute for Advanced Computer Science.

While at UMD, he has published over 100 research papers and book chapters, served as a principal investigator on more than 30 grants totaling more than $17 million and supervised the dissertations of a dozen doctoral students. He taught undergraduate and graduate classes in computer architecture, networking, operating systems and high-performance computing. He was part of the adjunct research staff at the Institute for Defense Analysis Center for Computer Science and a visiting scientist for the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center.