Dr. Nancy M. Amato, former Regents Professor and Unocal Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been named professor emeritus by The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents.
Amato joined the faculty at Texas A&M in 1995 as an assistant professor in the department and in 1998 began co-directing the Parasol Lab.
“It was really (Dr. Amato’s) passion and enthusiasm for course material and research that grabbed my attention,” said Shawna Thomas, postdoctoral research associate in the Parasol Lab. “She has had a huge impact not just on me but on future generations of researchers.”
Amato served as interim department head for one year, and since 2014, held the positions of senior director of the Engineering Honors Program in the Texas A&M College of Engineering and co-coordinator of the computer science and engineering track of Engineering Honors.
“(Dr. Amato’s) inspired vision and dedication to constant improvement allowed Engineering Honors to become what it is today,” said Jacob Brown ’21.
Consistently, Amato has been recognized for her teaching and mentoring. She is the recipient of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Award for Teaching Excellence, Texas A&M Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award for Teaching and the Betty M. Unterberger Award for Outstanding Service to Honors Education. Amato has graduated 23 doctoral students, with most going on to careers in academia (10), or government or industry research labs (8), and the remaining going to industry (3) or postdoctoral research (2).
Amato has also worked with more than 100 undergraduate students in research. Her areas of focus include motion planning and robotics, computational biology and geometry, and parallel and distributed computing.
“I was one of the first guinea pigs to try out some of her new research ideas. I’m so glad that I did, and a large part of that was due to her vision and passion for students and for learning,” said Kevin Kmetz ’19.
Over the years, Amato has made significant research contributions and has been established as an authority figure in each of these areas. She has received the Texas A&M Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award for Research, the National Center for Women & Information in Technology’s Harrold and Notkin Research and Graduate Mentoring Award, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Harriet B. Rigas Award, among others.
“Dr. Amato’s dedication to Texas A&M over the past 24 years is awe-inspiring,” said Dr. Dilma Da Silva, department head and professor. “Her consistent pursuit of excellence impacted all aspects of our department. With the emeritus title she remains part of our community, and I will continue to reach out to her as a source of innovative ideas, sound advice and energetic support.”
Amato received undergraduate degrees in mathematical sciences and economics from Stanford University, a master’s degree in computer science from the University of California at Berkeley and a doctoral degree in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is an Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, American Association for the Advancement of Science, ACM and IEEE fellow and continues to hold leadership positions within these professional societies and organizations.
Amato is now head of the Department of Computer Science and Abel Bliss Professor of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.