John E. Kolb ’79 received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Rensselaer. A licensed professional engineer in New York State, Kolb’s Rensselaer career spans over 40 years. He previously served as dean of Computing and Information Services; assistant dean of Engineering, head of Core Engineering; director of Engineering Computing Services; and manager in the Center for Interactive Computer Graphics. Kolb has taught courses in Engineering Science, Management, and IT. He is a member of NYSERNET.org Board and the chair of NYSERNET.net Board. He is the co-chair of the University of the State of NY Technology Policy and Practices Councils, and member of the board of the Rensselaer Newman Foundation. He is also a member of the American Society for Engineering Education and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He is the former chair of the CIO Council of the Capital Region Business-Higher Education Roundtable and a former board member of the Children’s Museum of Science and Technology (CMOST), Internet2, and WMHT. He is a past recipient of the Boeing Outstanding Engineering Educator Award. Kolb conceived and implemented an innovative mobile computer program for all undergrad students at RPI. He was instrumental in attracting and implementing three generations of supercomputers (with the current system having a computational capacity of 8 PetaFLOPS) at the Rensselaer Computational Center for Innovations (CCI). He is currently working on the latest initiative to install at RPI the first IBM Quantum System One on a college campus.