Ed Seidel

Edward Seidel began service as the University of Wyoming’s 28th President July 1, 2020 and concluded his service after two terms as President on July 1, 2026. He is a distinguished physicist and computer scientist, known internationally for scientific excellence, bold vision and dynamic and collegial leadership. He has a track record of advancing scientific research, technology development and economic progress throughout his career in the US and abroad. 

During his tenure at the University of Wyoming, Seidel worked to elevate the university at the state, national, and international levels.  His support and implementation of the Wyoming Innovation Partnership, in collaboration with Governor Gordon and community college presidents, was key to statewide alignment of higher education and student access to innovative programs that support the growth of the Wyoming economy. 

Seidel’s initiative on freedom of expression, intellectual freedom, and constructive dialogue has made the University of Wyoming a leader in this field. Its principles were among the first to commit to institutional neutrality, and in 2026 UW received the highest ranking given by ACTA on freedom of expression on university campuses nationwide. 

He has also championed science and research initiatives at UW including the creation of a School of Computing that provides computational skills to students of all majors. An advocate for the arts, Seidel oversaw the creation of the Neltje Center for Excellence in Creativity and the Arts. His vision for institutional excellence included programs designed to enhance student success, broaden UW’s service to the state, and ensure the long-term financial stability of UW. During his tenure as President UW significantly improved retention and graduate rates due to consistent and sustained hard work by the UW team. 

Seidel served on the UW Department of Energy’s Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee (ASCAC) and recently chaired a report on the future of DOE’s computing facilities in the next decade. He was also a Commissioner for the US Council on Competitiveness, and a member of Germany’s Helmholtz Association President’s Scientific Advisory Board. In 2026 he was appointed to the DOE Office of Science Advisory Committee (SCAC), reporting to Undersecretary Dario Gil, work he continues now as a faculty member at UW. He has also begun work on the National Association of Higher Education Systems (NASH) AI Advisory Board to develop recommendations to help universities prepare for the new world of AI.

Before coming to UW, Seidel was the Vice President for Research and then for Economic Development and Innovation for the University of Illinois System, building and supporting programs that engage university, public and private partners -- and strengthening the links among higher education, research and business to stimulate economic development across that state.  

His long record of scientific leadership experience includes more than three years as Director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was among the original co-principal investigators for Blue Waters, a federally funded project that brought one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers to Urbana-Champaign. 

Seidel spearheaded the creation of the Discovery Partners Institute and the Illinois Innovation Network, for which $500 million was appropriated by the State of Illinois in 2018. He also oversaw the University of Illinois System’s commercialization pipeline, including the Offices of Technology Management at Urbana-Champaign and Chicago, the Research Park in Urbana-Champaign, with over 120 companies in 19 buildings, and the early-stage technology investment firm Illinois Ventures, which has catalyzed over $1.7 billion in venture funding for companies. 

Previously, he was the Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation for the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Moscow, Russia, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. There, he was responsible for building research capacity, guiding the institute’s strategic focus on innovation and entrepreneurship, establishing international partnerships, directing the development of 21st century research facilities and programs, and overseeing quality and compliance. 

Before that, he directed the Office of Cyberinfrastructure and led the Directorate of Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) as National Science Foundation Assistant Director. The MPS Directorate possesses an annual budget of more than $1.4 billion. Within the Directorate, he oversaw national programs in astronomy, chemistry, materials science, mathematical sciences and physics. The Office of Cyberinfrastructure (now OAC) was responsible for national programs supporting advanced computing environments, software, computer networking and their application for addressing complex problems in science and engineering. He led the launch of new programs in computational and data-intensive science and engineering and the NSF-wide Cyberinfrastructure Framework for 21st Century Science and Engineering. At NSF, he also led emerging activities on data, public access to publications, and catalyzed development of interdisciplinary research programs, including the development of grand challenge programs to attack complex problems in science and engineering. 

Prior to joining NSF, he held senior appointments as Floating Point Systems Professor in Physics and Astronomy, and Computer Science at Louisiana State University, where he founded and directed the Center for Computation & Technology (CCT), an interdisciplinary research and innovation center involving more than four dozen faculty across the entire university. He had an integral part in the $50 million Louisiana Optical Network Initiative, connecting six research universities and two medical schools across the state of Louisiana. 

Seidel also directed the numerical relativity group at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute (AEI)) in Germany. The AEI is the world’s center for research in relativity, and from just after its founding in 1995 he developed what became one of the world’s leading efforts to study Einstein’s theories using supercomputers.  At AEI and elsewhere, Seidel has played central roles in launching international and regional research consortiums in Europe and the U.S., including the EU Astrophysics Network, which he led, and the GridLab project, that collectively involved a dozen countries. 

Seidel is a fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has earned a number of awards, including the 2006 IEEE Sidney Fernbach Award, the Association for Computing Machinery’s 2001 Gordon Bell Prize, and the 1998 Heinz Billing Prize of the Max Planck Society for his work in research, and the 2018 Business Leadership Award of the America-Israel Chamber of Commerce for work in economic development.  

Seidel has supervised dozens of graduate students and postdocs in physics, astronomy, computer science and other disciplines, and has published more than 200 papers (partial listing) in professional journals, books, and conference proceedings. His work in general relativity and scientific computing is widely cited in scientific literature. His research has focused on Einstein’s equations, applications to black holes and gravitational waves, and algorithms for high-performance computing. 

Seidel received his Ph.D. in general relativity and astrophysics from Yale University, earned a master’s degree in physics at the University of Pennsylvania, and received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physics from the College of William and Mary. 

Seidel’s partner is Gabrielle Allen, also a physicist and computer scientist, a Fellow of the American Physical Society a Council Member of the national Computing Community Consortium, and also a winner of the Gordon Bell Prize and other international awards. She was the founding Director of the University of Wyoming School of Computing where she is now a Professor, and is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UW. Prior to this Allen held an administrative role at UW as the Special Assistant for Strategic Initiatives in the Research and Economic Development Division. 

Previously Allen served as Associate Dean for Research in the College of Education, Professor in the Departments of Astronomy and Curriculum and Instruction, Associate Director for Research and Education at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, and Research Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She also held the position of Professor, Interim CIO and Interim Director for the Center for Computational and Data-Enabled Science and Engineering at Skoltech in Russia, Program Officer at NSF, Associate Director of CCT and Russel Long Professor of Computer Science at LSU, and Research Scientist at the Albert Einstein Institute in Germany.  She has a PhD in theoretical physics from Cardiff University, an MS in Applied Mathematics and theoretical physics from Cambridge University, and a BS in Mathematics from Nottingham University in the UK.