Larry Davis named Distinguished University Professor

Professor Larry Davis, also founder and professor of UMIACS, is now a Distinguished University Professor. 

After earning a Ph.D. here in the department in 1976 with Azriel Rosenfeld, Davis began working as an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin in 1977. In 1981, he returned to the University of Maryland as professor in the Computer Science department.  After a few years here, he founded the Institute of Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS) in 1985, and served as its director until 1994.   Davis also served as the Chair of the Department from 1999 until 2012.  He now serves as the Director of the Center for Automation Research (CfAR), which was begun by his advisor, Rosenfeld.

Davis' research spans the fields of computer vision and artificial intelligence, and he conducts research in areas including object/action recognition and scene analysis, movement detection, high performance computing, and human movement modeling. 

He has been honored as a fellow of IEEE (1998) and IAPR (2002), and a fellow of the ACM.

"Larry is a giant in the field of computer vision, following in the footsteps of his advisor Azriel Rosenfeld," said Samir Khuller, Professor and Elizabeth Iribe Chair of Computer Science.  "He has graduated about 50 Ph.D. students, and has an amazing research record and profile. We are fortunate to have such an important member of the computer science community here at the University of Maryland."

In July 2015, colleagues and former students gathered to host a workshop in Cape Cod to honor Davis' accomplishments in Computer Vision.

Now, as a Distinguished University Professor, Davis will undoubtedly continue on with his groundbreaking and award-winning research, his work with talented graduate students, and teaching the next generation of undergraduate students. 

With this honor Davis joins an eminent group at the university including his longtime academic collaborator and associate from UMIACS,  Professor Rama Chellappa of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. He also joins fellow computer science professors Hanan Samet, Ben Shneiderman, Pete Stewart, and Emerita Professor Dianne O'Leary.

Our heartiest congratulations and best wishes to Professor Davis.

From the DUP website:

Distinguished University Professors will have been recognized nationally and internationally for the importance of their scholarly and/or creative achievements. They will also have demonstrated the breadth of interest characteristically encompassed by the traditional role of scholar, teacher, and public servant. In addition, they will have brought distinction to the University of Maryland as a result of those activities.