W. Bruce Croft

Distinguished University Professor, Computer Science
Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval
Information retrieval.

Background: Ph.D., Computer Science, University of Cambridge, England (1979), M.Sc., Computer Science, Monash University, Australia (1974), B.Sc., Monash University, Australia (1973). Professor Croft has been on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts Amherst since 1979, and is currently a Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval. He was Department Chair from 2001 - 2007.

Research: Professor Croft's research interests are in formal models of retrieval for complex, text-based objects, text representation techniques, the design and implementation of text retrieval and routing systems, and user interfaces. He has published more than 100 articles on these subjects. This research is also being used in a number of operational retrieval systems.

Activities and awards: Professor Croft was Chair of the ACM Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval from 1987 to 1991. He was Editor-in-Chief of the ACM Transactions on Information Systems from 1995 to 2002. Professor Croft was a member of the National Research Council’s Computer Science and Telecommunications Board from 2000 to 2003. He has served on numerous program committees and has been involved in the organization of many workshops and conferences. He was elected a Fellow of ACM in 1997. Professor Croft was named Distinguished University Professor in February 2000. He recieved the Research Award from the American Society for Information Science and Technology in 2000, the UMass Amherst College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (NSM) Outstanding Faculty Award in 2001, and the Gerard Salton Award from the ACM Special Interest Group in Information Retrieval (SIGIR) in 2003. In 2005, Croft received the 2005 UMass Amherst NSM Outstanding Service Award for his sustained outstanding service contributions to the Department, to UMass Amherst, to his technical discipline, and to the federal government.

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