James R. Bottum

James R. "Jim" Bottum has been named Chief Information Officer and Vice Provost for Computing and Information Technology at Clemson University. Clemson University sees information technology critically important to all facets of a top university, including education, research and service. At Clemson University, he will lead efforts focusing on high performance computing and communication, collaborating with State and National governmental entities.

Prior to coming to Clemson, Bottum became the first CIO and VP for Computing at Purdue, where he was responsible for planning and coordinating all computing and information systems across the university. He had direct oversight of the university's central IT organization, Information Technology at Purdue, known as ITaP (pronounced eye-TAP). Under Bottum's leadership, ITaP was recognized nationally for innovative uses of information technology to improve teaching and learning, including classroom response systems, technology classroom sites and podcasting as a centralized service. In the fall of 2005, these innovative approaches were recognized by "Newsweek" and with a cover story in the "Chronicle of Higher Education."

Bottum has also had experience as executive director for the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a graduate of Florida State University and attended law school at the State University of New York at Buffalo.