Dr. Jean R.S. Blair

Jean Blair is the EECS Distinguished Professor for Innovation and a Professor of Computer Science at the United States Military Academy where she previously held positions as deputy to the Chief Academic Officer, director of the Computer Science Program and director of the Information Systems Engineering Program. She has spent several sabbatical years at the University in Bergen, Norway, where she served as a visiting professor and senior research scientist. Before joining the USMA faculty in 1994, Blair spent eight years on the faculty at the University of Tennessee and worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a research scientist.

Blair’s research focuses on the design and analysis of algorithms for combinatorial problems, with recent emphasis on graph algorithms and curricular design for emerging computing disciplines. She is author of numerous academic articles and has received research grants and awards from various agencies including the National Science Foundation and the Army Research Labs.

An ABET volunteer since 2000, she has served as a program evaluator, as a team chair, as a commissioner, on the Computing Accreditation Commission (CAC) executive committee, and as chair of the Accreditation Council. She also volunteers as an accreditation team member for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and has been active in local and regional leadership of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Blair is a member of the CSAB Board, a senior member of IEEE, a senior member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and a member of both the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) and the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE). Jean was named both an ABET Fellow and a CSAB Fellow in 2023.

Blair earned a Bachelor of Science from Allegheny College with a double major in Economics and Computer Science, the Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh, and the Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh. She is a member of the international honor society for the computing and information disciplines – Upsilon Pi Epsilon, the international honor society in social sciences – Pi Gamma Mu and was an Alden Scholar at Allegheny College.

Blair has been happily married to the love of her life, Bruce, for more than 40 years, together they have three children, three children-in-laws, and three grandchildren.