Douglas E. Van Houweling

Douglas E. Van Houweling, the founding President and CEO of Internet2, is also a Professor in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. Van Houweling served as a member of the National Academies Panel on the Impact of IT on the Future of the Research University. With James Duderstadt and Daniel Atkins he authored Higher Education in the Digital Age. Van Houweling is the recipient of the EDUCAUSE 2002 Excellence in Leadership Award, and currently serves on the boards of Advanced Network and Services, Merit Networks, Altarum, and Adaptec.

Dr. Van Houweling played a major role in Internet development in the United States. He was Chairman of the Board of MERIT, Inc., a Michigan statewide computing network, when the National Science Foundation awarded it responsibility for operation and management of the NSFNET national backbone in partnership with IBM, MCI and the Michigan Strategic Fund in 1987. Van Houweling was also Chairman of the Board of Advanced Network and Services Corporation, a not-for-profit organization that implemented and operated the world's largest Internet backbone network from 1991 until 1995.

Van Houweling has long been active in inter-university initiatives, serving on the EDUCOM Board and playing roles in establishing numerous initiatives to establish cooperative information technology efforts among universities. He was a founder of EDUCOM's Networking and Telecommunications Task Force and the Inter-university Consortium for Educational Computing.

From 1984 until 1997, Dr. Van Houweling served as the Vice Provost for Information and Technology at the University of Michigan, where he was responsible for the University's strategic direction in the information technology arena. Between 1995 and 1997, he was also Dean for Academic Outreach with responsibility for extending the University's reach beyond its campus-based degree programs.

Van Houweling came to Michigan from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh where he was Vice Provost for Computing and Planning from 1981 until 1984. In that capacity, he initiated and directed Carnegie-Mellon's Andrew project to enable broad use of personal computer workstations in a networked environment. Before joining Carnegie-Mellon, Van Houweling was at Cornell University from 1970 to 1981 as Assistant Professor of Government. Starting in 1976, he took on the additional responsibilities for information technology leadership and became Director of Academic Computing and Central Computing Services in 1980.

Dr. Van Houweling received his undergraduate degree from Iowa State University and his Ph.D. in Government from Indiana University.