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Dr. Jeff Stanton, a professor of information studies at Syracuse University, has been selected for the prestigious role of program director at the National Science Foundation. After completing his one-year role, which began in September, he will return to Syracuse to continue teaching.
“I applied to NSF and got an opportunity to work in the foundation’s new Technology, Innovations, and Partnerships (TIP) directorate, which was established by Congress as part of the Chips and Technology Act,” says Stanton. “TIP is the only new directorate established at NSF in about 30 years.”
Stanton is serving as program director for a program called Pathways to Enable Open Source Ecosystems, POSE, which “aims to harness the power of open-source development for the creation of new technology solutions to problems of national and societal importance.”
“My position is known as a ‘rotator’ position, which means that I will return to my academic role at Syracuse after my NSF experience is complete,” he says. “NSF makes extensive use of rotators as a way of bringing the experience and knowledge of outside experts into the agency.”
The POSE program has an anticipated funding amount of $27.8 million, and Stanton will be working with a team of program officers from across the foundation to conduct the merit review process that leads to awards in the program. Program officers create merit review panels with external peer reviewers from higher education and industry, and the panels make recommendations on which proposals NSF should fund.
Stanton is no stranger to the NSF. He originally came to Syracuse with an NSF CAREER award and he and his iSchool colleagues have applied for and received several other NSF awards over the years.
“I have served as an NSF principal investigator or co-principal investigator on many occasions,” he says. “The most recent of these is the three-year award that is supporting our Research Experiences for Undergraduates site. I’ve also previously served as an NSF merit review panelist and in that role had the opportunity to see some of the details of the merit review process.”
“Additionally, I have had a few different administrative roles at the iSchool and the university that have given me a close-up look at research administration,” Stanton added. “All of these experiences have been helpful in preparing me to serve as a program director. I appreciate the support of the university and the iSchool in providing the opportunity for me to participate in this valuable career experience.”