3:19 p.m., March 12, 2009----Carl Jacobson has been named University of Delaware vice president for Information Technologies and chief information officer (CIO), it was announced Thursday by UD Executive Vice President Scott Douglass.

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Jacobson, who has served as interim vice president since the retirement of Susan Foster in June, 2008, was named to the position of vice president following a national search.

"Since joining Information Technologies, Carl Jacobson has played a key role in keeping the University of Delaware in the forefront of the field. As the University pursues its Path to Prominence^TM, I am confident he will continue to provide the leadership necessary to keep UD on the leading edge in these challenging times," Douglass said.

“This is an exciting time for all of us in the IT organization,” Jacobson said. “The excitement of our new institutional direction, the challenges of the current economy and the rapid evolution of the field of information technology present us with many opportunities for improvement and success.”

Jacobson added, “I am honored that UD has given me a chance to show the potential of our IT group and I am proud of what they have accomplished in the last ten months.”

In addition to his work at UD, Jacobson is a consultant, a writer and a frequent speaker at national and regional computing conferences. His areas of interest and expertise include customer outreach, the Web, e-business and open-source software development.

Jacobson managed the "first-of-its-kind" efforts at the University of Delaware to build secure, organized, dependable Web front ends to administrative systems.

He is an outspoken advocate of re-thinking the roles of the Web and e-business, providing new opportunities to support teaching and research, revamp business practices, and improve customer service.

Jacobson joined the University of Delaware in 1976 as a programmer/analyst in Administrative Systems.

He was associate director of IT-Management Information Systems from 1983-88 and was director of the unit when he was named interim vice president last year.

In 2001, Jacobson received the prestigious Leadership in Information Technology Award from EDUCAUSE. He was hailed as a pioneer in the use of the Web to provide access to institutional administrative information resources and for his work to enable students, faculty and staff to conduct University business online.

He also received an EDUCAUSE Catalyst Award in 2007 for his work with the uPortal project, called a “groundbreaking solution in higher education,” and UD Innovation Awards in 2001 and 2002.

He was principal investigator of a $1.2 million Mellon Foundation grant for the collaborative development of uPortal.

Jacobson was co-founder of the Java in Administration Special Interest Group and a founding board member of the Sakai Foundation. Sakai is an open source courseware management platform for and by educators.

Jacobson is a University of Delaware alumnus, having earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1973.