March 21, 2011
Russell Taylor named inaugural John C. Malone Professor
The John C. Malone Professorship has been created in recognition of the recent $30 million gift to the Whiting School of Engineering from alumnus John C. Malone that will support the construction of Malone Hall, a facility dedicated to research in the areas of individualized health, systems engineering, and computing and information sciences.
In keeping with Malone’s belief in the importance of research that crosses disciplines, the Malone professorship will be awarded to an outstanding member of the WSE faculty whose work crosses the borders of multiple disciplines.
Russell H. Taylor, professor of computer science and the director of the Engineering Research Center for Computer-Integrated Surgical Systems and Technology has been named the inaugural John C. Malone Professor. A dedication ceremony is being planned.
In making the announcement, Nicholas P. Jones, the Benjamin T. Rome Dean of the Whiting School, said, “There could be no more fitting recipient of this honor than Russ Taylor. Russ’ work in computer-integrated interventional medicine exemplifies the cutting-edge research approach supported by Dr. Malone.”
Broadly, Taylor’s research includes medical robotics, medical imaging and modeling, complete systems for surgical assistance, image-guided surgery and what he refers to as “surgical CAD/CAM.” An underlying theme of Taylor’s work has been the idea that information-based technologies can have as profound an impact on computer-integrated medicine as they have had on computer-integrated manufacturing. To that end, he has pioneered development of surgical systems that integrate novel computer and human/machine interface technologies and that extend surgeons’ abilities to achieve better outcomes at lower costs.
After receiving his bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins in 1970, Taylor earned his doctorate in computer science from Stanford in 1976. That year, he joined IBM Research, where he developed the AML robot language and managed the Automation Technology Department and, later, the Computer-Assisted Surgery Group. In 1995, Taylor returned to Johns Hopkins to join the Whiting School’s Computer Science faculty (while holding joint appointments in Mechanical Engineering, Radiology and Surgery) and in 1998 became the founding director of the NSF-funded Engineering Research Center for Computer-Integrated Surgical Systems and Technology.
Taylor has authored numerous refereed publications, is a fellow of the IEEE, AIMBE and Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention Society, and holds 65 patents. He is also a recipient of the IEEE Robotics Pioneer Award, the Maurice Muller Award for Excellence in Computer-Assisted Orthopedic Surgery and the MICCAI Society’s 2010 Enduring Impact Award.