Padmanabhan S.

Dr. Padmanabhan Seshaiyer is a tenured full Professor and Director at George Mason University. He has served in multiple leadership positions including the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Director of the STEM Accelerator Program as well as the Director of the Center for Outreach in Mathematics Professional Learning and Educational Technology at George Mason University. His research interests are in the broad areas of Computational Mathematics, Scientific Computing, Data Science, STEM Education, Design and Systems Thinking, Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Teacher Professional Development. During the last decade, he has initiated and directed a variety of educational programs including faculty development, post-graduate, graduate and undergraduate research, K-12 outreach, teacher professional development, and enrichment programs to foster the interest of students and teachers in STEM at all levels. Specifically, he has designed programs to engage students and teachers at all levels in computational thinking, technology innovations, modeling and problem solving. He is also actively involved in multiple global STEM collaborative projects and mentored several students, especially women and girls of color through research and training programs in computing that engage students, teachers and faculty from over 20 countries. He has won several prestigious awards for his contributions to teaching and interdisciplinary research and also serves on several advisory boards and scientific taskforces for national and international organizations. In April 2019, he was selected as one of the “Figures that Matter” for his contributions to Academia and Society and was awarded an honorary doctorate by Vrije Universiteit Brussel.