Andrew Dillon has announced he will resign as dean of the School of Information in 2017 to return to the faculty.
In an announcement to the UT Austin campus, Provost Maurie McInnis thanked Dillon for a decade and a half of service to the iSchool.
“The School of Information is consistently ranked among the best in the nation thanks in large part to Andrew’s leadership over the past 14 years,” she said. “He is a leader in the field of the human response to information technology, and we are fortunate to benefit from his continued scholarly contributions and leadership at UT Austin.”
Since joining the iSchool in 2002, Dillon has led major revisions of the school’s mission, curriculum and organizational structure. The school changed its name in 2003 to the School of Information, and it has strengthened its research and teaching focus, leading to new emphases on human-computer interaction, digital curation, information retrieval and contemporary information work.
In 2009 the school moved to new facilities in its current building, which is home to dedicated research labs, classrooms and offices, and houses the school in one space after years of separation across multiple sites on campus. Research funding grew more than tenfold over these years, and the school’s endowment has more than doubled since 2005.
“Leading the iSchool has been an honor, and it’s hard to believe nearly 15 years have passed,” Dillon said. “I feel enormously privileged to have had the support of an incredible staff and faculty over this period, and I stand in admiration of our graduates and the changes they are leading in the world.”
After a period of leave, Dillon will return to the faculty in 2018 to resume his scholarly career as a professor.
“I always said my ultimate goal was to create the best possible environment in which to be a faculty member, and then to join as a professor myself,” he said. “My administrative career was fascinating but at heart, I am a scholar, and I look forward to concentrating on research and teaching again.”