Dr. Bob Kolvoord has served as the Founding Dean of the College of Integrated Science and Technology at James Madison University (JMU) since 2012, where he is also a Professor of Integrated Science and Technology and Educational Technologies. In addition, Kolvoord serves as the Chief Innovation Office at JMU. Prior to arriving at JMU, Kolvoord was a Research Associate and Senior Research Associate at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.
Kolvoord is an award-winning teacher, researcher and author. In 2011, he was recognized with the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia’s Outstanding Faculty Award. With Kathryn Keranen, he is the co-founder of the Geospatial Semester and co-author of four books on applications of GIS. Kolvoord is an active researcher and has secured grant funding in excess of $13M in his career. Kolvoord’s research focuses on the impact of geospatial technologies on students’ spatial thinking skills. Kolvoord was the co-chair of the 2015 Gordon Research Conference on Visualization in Science and Education.
Kolvoord has been involved in the start-up of four businesses and is actively involved in the innovation and entrepreneurship activities at JMU. He serves as co-chair of ReEngineering Madison, a university-wide IT reinvention effort and he is also helping to spearhead JMU’s developing focus on AI.
He earned his Bachelors (Physics) and Masters (Materials Science) from the University of Virginia and his Doctorate (Theoretical and Applied Mechanics) from Cornell University.