Samuel F. Averitt, Vice Provost Information Technology
North Carolina State University
Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leader, 2004. 

Information Technology Division, Box 7109
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7109
919 515-5493
919 513-1895 (FAX)
E-mail: sam_averitt@ncsu.edu

Current appointments

• Vice Provost for Information Technology, NC State University, 2000-present
• Chair North Carolina Networking Initiative (NCNI)
• Chair North Carolina MCNC Management Advisory Council                  

Background

Sam Averitt is Vice Provost for Information technology at NC State University. He heads the Information Technology Division (ITD), the university's central division for academic IT, networking and strategic information technologies. Averitt is responsible for strategic IT planning and is known for leading campus and regional initiatives, especially in the field of advanced networking.

A native of North Carolina, Averitt earned his BS and MS in electrical engineering from NC State. He has worked his entire career at the university, joining the Computing Center (now ITD) in the 1970's when "a few dozen research faculty wanted network access to the campus mainframe." Since then, Averitt has led efforts to keep the NC State campus consistently at the forefront of IT theory and practice.

Representative  activities  and projects

Current initiatives focus on advancing university academic goals while promoting administrative and academic "enterprise” thinking for improved efficiency and coordination of IT systems and services. Recently, Averitt co-led collaborative efforts that resulted in the university's new Initiative for Advanced Analytics, announced in July 2006. A strong supporter of the university's Learning in a Technology Rich Environment (LITRE) Quality Enhancement Plan, Averitt has encouraged many campus efforts to advance teaching and learning with technology. These projects include the highly innovative Virtual Computing Lab developed in collaboration with the College of Engineering. In 2004 Averitt launched the ongoing NC State Layer 8 Initiative and co-authored Layer 8: A White Paper on Managing Information Technology Investments To Advance NC State’s Mission.

After the abrupt closing of the North Carolina Supercomputing Center in May 2003, Averitt worked tirelessly to upgrade the regional networking infrastructure to enable participation in national HPC and Grid initiatives and to build NC State's on-campus HPC capacities, expertise and support structures. These efforts were part of Averitt's long history of working to develop and promote regional and national advanced  networking research and deployment in higher education, such as  Internet2, NC-REN, the North Carolina Network Initiative, NC GigaPoP, and, most recently, the NationalLambda Rail (NLR). Averitt received national recognition for these efforts in 2004, when he was named a Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leader.

Education
North Carolina State University, Electrical Engineering                MS                  1974
North Carolina State University, Electrical Engineering                BS                   1969

Awards/recognition
2004 Commputerworld Premier 100 IT Leader.