Information Technology at Purdue

Bottum named CIO, vice president of Clemson University

Bottum has held his current position since August of 2001. Before arriving at Purdue he was executive director for the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

At Purdue, Bottum was responsible for planning and coordinating all computing and information systems across the University. As vice president, he had direct oversight of the University’s central IT organization, Information Technology at Purdue, known as ITaP (pronounced eye-TAP), which has nearly 500 staff members and an annual budget of more than $55 million.

“The past five years as Purdue’s inaugural CIO have been some of the most challenging and rewarding in my professional career,” Bottum says. “I will forever treasure the time in West Lafayette and all of the wonderful people I have had the privilege to work and interact with.”

In his new role at Clemson, Bottum will lead an effort to focus on high performance computing and communications, and also assist in developing a new school of computational science and information technology.

While at Purdue, Bottum oversaw the integration of information technology into the University’s research efforts. This innovative approach to research computing was highlighted in a 2005 report by the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research in the case study “A New Model for Supporting Research at Purdue University.” The report states, “Based on the lessons of Purdue, it’s clear that a forward-thinking CIO and partner-oriented IT organization can make a significant impact by seizing new opportunities presented by developments and strategic initiatives occurring at their institution.”

Under Bottum’s leadership, ITaP was also recognized nationally for innovative uses of IT to improve teaching and learning, including the use of classroom response systems, technology classroom sites, and podcasting as a centralized service. In the fall of 2005, these innovative approaches were recognized by Newsweek and with a cover story in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Bottum also proposed and set the foundation for Purdue’s first Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) project, OnePurdue, which will go into production in the fall of 2006, and led a University-wide IT security effort, SecurePurdue, which launched in August of 2005.