Biography
A native of Edinburgh, Scotland, John received his B.Sc. (Honours) in Civil Engineering from the University of Glasgow, and is a Chartered Engineer and a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in London. John has been involved with technology in a career spanning more than 30 years. An innovative and versatile professional, he has over 19 years experience and expertise in support of technology in American Academe, nine at Yale University, seven at The Pennsylvania State University, and most recently at Santa Clara, Stanford and Duke Universities. At Penn State, where he held a dual appointment as the Director of Instructional and Information Technology for the Dickinson School of Law and the School of International Affairs, John was responsible inter alia for realizing the vision of pervasively conducting classes between two campus locations 90 miles apart for this uniquely ABA-accredited and unified law school. John is currently working on using technology to marry the science and art of the Admissions process for Duke's School of Medicine and, in parallel, on a longitudinal study of academic success from student applicant to beyond graduation, which encompasses "Big Data" analytics. Prior to his work in academic technology, John was in Project Management for Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick, Consulting Engineers. In addition to significant work in the engineering design and project management of construction projects worldwide, his work included the creation of a help desk and network support structure for the firm, that was spread across 20 offices globally. John's advocacy has always been to maximize the benefits that may be attained through appropriate and judicious use of technology.
