Dr. Cantrell's Biography

Dr. Pierce E. Cantrell is the Vice President and Associate Provost for Information Technology and the Chief Information Officer at Texas A&M University.

As the university's Chief Information Officer, Dr. Cantrell is responsible for academic and administrative computing, computer networks, telecommunications, public television and radio, and the statewide data and videoconference network. Prior to assuming his current position in March 1999, he served in an interim role for one year.

A member of the Texas A&M faculty since 1982, Dr. Cantrell is an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering (EE) and served as the Assistant Department Head responsible for the undergraduate programs in EE and Computer Engineering (EE track) from 1992 to 1998. Dr. Cantrell also served as the Speaker of the Faculty Senate from 1995 to 1996.

Dr. Cantrell received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, all in electrical engineering, from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1970, 1971 and 1981, respectively. From 1976 to 1981 he served on active military duty with the Computer Networking Support Branch in the Intelligence Division at the NORAD/Cheyenne Mountain complex.

Dr. Cantrell is a computer engineer with research in the general area of computer networking. Recent research areas include multimedia networking and videoconferencing over LANs and WANs with multilayer coding over multiple multicast groups.