Leadership transition within the UF Informatics Institute

David P. Norton, Vice President for Research

After serving as the director of the UF Informatics Institute (UFII) for 8 years, Dr. George Michailidis has decided to step down from this role to take a position in industry. His term as director will end December 31, 2022.

Dr. Michailidis joined UF in 2014 from the University of Michigan as the founding UFII director. Under his leadership, the UF Informatics Institute coalesced for the first time the broad interdisciplinary interests of data science, informatics, and related efforts under one university-wide research organization that now includes over 200 members with common interests in informatics.

Over the past eight years, funding for data science and informatics research at UF has significantly increased. During Dr. Michailidis’ tenure, the UFII supported the data science and informatics community through its core Seed Fund and Fellows programs. It also developed education and outreach efforts, providing training and researcher seminars for faculty to accelerate their programs and careers.

Under Dr. Michailidis’ leadership, the UFII was instrumental in accelerating the research efforts around the UF Artificial Intelligence Initiative, convening subject-matter working groups, organizing focused workshops, symposia and seminar series and partnering with UF Research Computing and the academic units in recruiting and onboarding new AI hires, and providing $1.1 million in seed funding for innovative AI research projects.

During his time at UF, Dr. Michailidis secured approximately $5.8 million in research grants and contracts to support his own research efforts, mentored 16 graduate students and 9 post-docs, and published 92 papers through journals and conferences.

As we prepare for this transition and begin our search for a new UFII director, UF Research will seek input from the UF informatics community on how to further build upon the success to date realized through the UFII.

Please join me in thanking Dr. Michailidis for his vision, leadership and research efforts over the past 8 years and wishing him well as he begins his new role in the private sector.