Founding Director Prof. Richard Taylor Steps Down

ISR Founding Director, Prof. Richard N. Taylor, who retired in 2013, has passed the directorship baton to Interim Director Cristina Lopes as of July 1. Taylor has served as Director since ISR’s inception in 1999. Under his stewardship, the ISR faculty grew from seven members to 29, and nearly 100 ISR-affiliated students earned their Ph.D. He established the popular ISR Research Forum and Distinguished Speaker series. Under his aegis, ISR always emphasized building community and cultivating relationships with industry. Taylor also served as Director of ISR’s predecessor, the Irvine Research Unit in Software (IRUS), from 1993 to 1999 and led the effort to establish ISR as a UCI Organized Research Unit—the only ORU focused on software research. We thank Prof. Taylor for his years of dedicated service!

“On June 9, on behalf of the ISR community, I had the pleasure to give Prof. Taylor a plaque celebrating his leadership of the Institute over the past 2 decades. ISR is not just about software research; it’s also about training and connecting people who do and benefit from software research. Prof. Taylor built an incredible community of faculty, staff, students, visitors, alumni, and industry colleagues. This community is a part of his legacy.”

  – ISR Interim Director Prof. Cristina Videira Lopes

“Dick was instrumental in building software engineering into a major powerhouse at UC Irvine. He had an outstanding vision for the kind of research we should be doing at UCI, how to make that research relevant and indeed have a major impact on the real world, and in the process build excellent and lasting university-industry partnerships. UCI would not be where it is today without Dick’s leadership.” “I personally am indebted to Dick reaching out and recruiting me to UCI when I was still a graduate student at CU Boulder. I landed in a fantastic place with fantastic colleagues and support. Now as department chair, I would love to continue to honor and expand the legacy Dick has built.”
  – ICS Dept. Chair Prof. André van der Hoek

“Dick has left an indelible mark, not only on ISR, but on all of software engineering at UCI. Looking from the outside, this is visible in the long-line of students, projects, publications, and awards that he produced. Those of us who have worked with him know that his greatest contribution has been establishing an amazing work environment where relationships have always come first. Dick has been an invaluable mentor and colleague, but he is also a role model I strive to emulate, and a friend.”
  – Prof. Nenad Medvidović, USC

Prof. Taylor influenced the course of my career far more than any other individual. He mentored me as both an undergrad and graduate student. During my first years in grad school, I met and worked on joint research with my future colleagues at the Aerospace Corporation, an outgrowth of personal and organizational relationships that Dick had cultivated and nurtured over many years. Universityindustry relationships like these are critical for innovation – they motivate and inform academic research topics, and they infuse the latest ideas into industrial practice. At ISR-organized and supported events (ISR Forums, GSAW, and so on), I met more Aerospace engineers, got to know the company, and ultimately chose to go there upon graduation. I now serve as the Aerospace liaison to UCI and ISR, and am proud to do so. As Dick’s long and fruitful directorship comes to a close, it’s clear that through IRUS and ISR he has built and sustained something much greater than himself.
  – Alumnus Dr. Eric Dashofy, The Aerospace Corporation