Peter M. Siegel, an accomplished information technology specialist with more than 35 years of experience in the field, has been appointed USC’s vice provost and chief information officer (CIO), effective July 15. Siegel succeeds Ilee Rhimes, who has served in the position since 2007.

Siegel comes to USC from the University of California, Davis, where he was CIO and vice provost for Information and Educational Technology, with primary responsibilities for research, academic and administrative computing. As a member of the chancellor’s cabinet, he led the development of a coordinated information technology strategy across the university, including the Davis and Sacramento campuses.

“A hallmark of Peter Siegel’s work at UC Davis was the formation of strong partnerships with faculty on campus and with technology leaders at partner institutions throughout the nation in many areas,” Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Elizabeth Garrett wrote in a memo to USC faculty and staff. These areas included “big data” academic programs and technology plans; an advanced data center design for managed and co-located research and clinical systems; instructional technologies to support faculty breaking new ground in the classroom and online; and best-of-breed models for administrative services.

A nationally recognized advocate for electronic accessibility and universal design, Siegel also speaks regularly on cloud computing, big data challenges and strategies, computer privacy and security issues, collaboration technologies, the role of technology planning in academia, and cyber-infrastructure in support of research.

Prior to joining UC Davis in 2006, Siegel was CIO at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for six years; he served as director for Academic Technology at Iowa State University for two years; and he held a variety of positions in high-performance computing and networking during his 22 years at Cornell University.

In addition, Siegel has been active for many years in Educause, the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) and Internet2. He recently completed stints as chair of the Internet2 Research Advisory Council, member of the Internet2 Board of Trustees and board of directors of CENIC, campus representative on the Kuali Foundation Board and member of the Kuali Rice Board.