Renowned AI pioneer resigns as dean
University of Alberta’s dean of science, artificial intelligence pioneer Jonathan Schaeffer, has resigned from his position effective Oct. 1 citing decisions made by the university’s leadership that he “cannot support.”
In a resignation letter circulated to staff Wednesday, Schaeffer said it was a “difficult decision.”
“The University of Alberta has changed a lot in the last three years,” he wrote.
“The university ’s leadership has made decisions and taken actions that I cannot support. Therefore, the faculty of science would be better served by a different leader, one who is more in line with the expectations of the president and provost.”
Schaeffer did not specify what the decisions and actions were that led to his resignation.
Provost and vice-president academic, Steven Dew, issued a statement on the university’s website Thursday afternoon thanking Schaeffer for his service as dean and highlighted his many achievements at the U of A including his role in helping bring DeepMind, Google’s artificial intelligence research lab, to the city.
Schaeffer will resume his research program as a full professor in the Department of Computing Science and “continue his advocacy for the advancement of artificial intelligence in Edmonton, Alberta, and Canada,” Dew said.
An interim dean is yet to be named.
Schaeffer, who began his term as dean on July 1, 2012, and who has spent almost 35 years with Alberta’s largest university, said he was proud of the “teaching, research and administrative projects that I have been part of.”
Schaeffer has spent his entire professorial career with the U of A department of computing science after joining in 1984.
He is one of a handful of Canadians to be named a fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence and in 2007 was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
His early career focused on the creation of a checkers program that became the first computer program to win a human world championship in any game.
He also created a chess program that tied for first place in the 1986 World Computer Chess Championship and was chair in high-performance artificial intelligence systems between 2001 and 2011.
Between 2005-08 he was viceprovost and associate vice-president (information technology) at the university and chair of computing science.
In 2014, Schaeffer founded a notfor-profit company that was a spinoff from the U of A that focuses on interactive learning and Massive Open Online Course platforms.
Schaeffer’s departure is the latest move at the university with other members of the Office of the Provost moving on to other positions outside of the province.
Vice-president of advancement Heather McCaw is leaving Oct. 31 to return to the University of British Columbia as vice-president, development and alumni engagement.
Vice provost and university registrar Lisa Collins will leave Oct. 21 after accepting a new role as vicepresident students at British Columbia Institute of Technology and vice-provost and associate vice-president international Britta Baron has already left to take up a position in her home country of Germany.
Heather Zwicker, vice-provost and dean of the faculty of graduate studies and research, is moving to Australia to join the University of Queensland on Oct. 1 as executive dean of humanities and social sciences.