FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - The University of Arkansas College of Engineering is pleased to announce that Dr. Craig Warren Thompson, professor of Computer Science and Computer Engineering, has been named as the first holder of the Acxiom Database Chair in Engineering.

Prior to joining the University, Thompson co-founded and served as President of Object Services and Consulting, Inc. (OBJS) from 1995 to 2003, specializing in the development of innovative technologies to enable government and businesses to operate and interoperate effectively in distributed environments. He also served as a senior member of technical staff and research manager in the Central Research Labs at Texas Instruments from 1981 to 1995 and taught graduate artificial intelligence (AI) and database courses at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, from 1977 to 1981.

"Dr. Thompson will provide tremendous leadership in the area of database engineering, one of our most important areas of teaching and research," said Ashok Saxena, Dean of Engineering. "We are very grateful to Acxiom for providing the resources that have enabled us to attract someone like Dr. Thompson to our engineering program."

The Acxiom Database Chair in Engineering was made possible through a generous five-year, $500,000 commitment Acxiom Corporation of Little Rock made in 2000. Founded in 1969, Acxiom integrates data, services and technology to create and deliver customer and information management solutions for many of the largest, most respected companies in the world. Also, the company has strong ties to the University, with company leader Charles Morgan, company operations leader Rodger Kline and financial and government client services organization leader Jim Womble all receiving degrees from the UA College of Engineering.

According to Thompson, "In the coming years, Arkansas has tremendous potential to develop data and knowledge intensive industries. The opportunity to help build strong bridges between the University and industry is why I am here. The University can help solve industry research problems, and both graduate and undergraduate students benefit by gaining real-world experience."

Thompson received a B.S. in mathematics from Stanford University in 1971 and an M.A and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin in 1977 and 1984 respectively. He is a nationally recognized leader in object and agent technology standards, and his work has had impact in several fields, including database systems, software architecture, multi-agent systems, and human-computer interfaces.

Thompson, who holds six software patents with one pending, is a senior member of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and an ACM member, and serves on the editorial board of IEEE Internet Computing. He has published more than 40 articles and has been an advisor to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Microelectronic and Computer Technology Corp. (MCC), and National Industrial Information Infrastructure Protocols Consortium.