Williams named acting department head in Computer Science

Dr. Laurie Williams has been named acting head of the Department of Computer Science at North Carolina State University, effective Dec. 15, 2014.

Williams will retain her position as the co-director of NC State’s Science of Security Lablet and will act as department head while Dr. Mladen Vouk serves as the interim vice-chancellor for research, innovation, and economic development. Vouk has led the department since 2004.

Williams is a renowned researcher in agile software development and in the security of healthcare IT applications. She currently leads the Software Engineering Realsearch research group at NC State, which focuses on the development of reliable, secure software and collaboration with high-tech companies such as ABB Corporation, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, Nortel Networks, Red Hat and numerous healthcare IT organizations.

Williams has received several awards for her roles in research and education and serves as lead investigator for National Science Foundation grants to improve the retention of women and minorities in computer science using various educational practices like agile software development and pair programming.

She received a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Utah, an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and a BS in industrial engineering from Lehigh University.