Kavita Bala has been named provost at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Her five-year appointment will begin on January 1.
Dr. Bala has been a member of the Cornell University community since 1999, when she began her tenure as a postdoctoral researcher. In 2002, she officially joined the faculty as an assistant professor of computer science. Since then, she has risen to her current roles as dean of the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science and dean of the Cornell AI Initiative. During her time with the university, she also helped to establish the New York Presbyterian-Cornell Cardiovascular AI Initiative and the Schmidt AI for Science postdoctoral program.
As a scholar, Dr. Bala conducts extensive research into computer vision and computer graphics. Her academic accomplishments led her to co-founding GrokStyle, a visual recognition AI company that has been utilized by IKEA, and was acquired by Facebook in 2019. In addition to her academic work, she serves on the board of directors for several organizations, including ColorStack, an organization that aims to increase the number of Black and Latinx computer science graduates that go on to rewarding technical careers.
Dr. Bala received her bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay. She holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology