Charles Isbell

Charles L. Isbell, Jr. is a distinguished American computer scientist and educator, currently serving as the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1990 and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1998. Isbell has made significant contributions to the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning, particularly in developing autonomous agents capable of lifelong learning in complex environments.Before his current role, Isbell was a professor at Georgia Tech's College of Computing, where he also served as the John P. Imlay, Jr. Dean from July 2019 to July 2023. He is known for his advocacy for diversity and inclusion in computing education and has played a pivotal role in curriculum reform, including the development of Georgia Tech’s innovative online Master of Science in Computer Science program. His research has garnered attention from major media outlets and has been recognized with numerous awards, including fellowships from the Association for Computing Machinery and the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.