Three computer science alumni of the University of Missouri-Rolla were inducted as members into the UMR Academy of Computer Science during the group’s banquet and induction ceremony in Rolla on April 20.

The academy honors outstanding computer scientists for their contributions to the profession and their involvement with UMR students and faculty. The academy also serves as an advisory group to the computer science department.

New members are:

• James Gantt of Duluth, Ga., director of the Center for Telecommunications Systems Management (CTSM) in the Murray State University Program of Distinction in Telecommunications Systems Management. A native of Murray, Ky., Gantt received a master’s degree in computer science with an emphasis in operations research from UMR in 1972. He also holds a bachelor’s degree with honors (Cum Laude) from Murray State University, an education specialist degree in management from Ball State University and a Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. After graduation, Gantt, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, served as an instructor at the Army Computer Science School at Fort Harrison, Ind. He has held several leadership positions with the Army Institute for Research in Management Information, Communications, and Computer Sciences (AIRMICS) and the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), serving most recently as ARL’s chief information officer. In 1998, Gantt received a Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa) from Bowie State University. He was named a Distinguished Alumnus of Murray State University in 2003.

• Adonica Randall of Oconomowoc, Wis., president and chief executive officer of Connection Strategies Enterprises Inc., an IT services and staffing company. Randall received a bachelor’s degree in computer science from UMR in 1975, and also holds a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from Marquette University. She has served in technical, sales and management positions at General Motors, GE Medical Systems, IBM and the AO Smith Engineering Division and has started multiple professional service business for several Milwaukee companies. Randall is also a guest lecturer at a variety of technical conferences and seminars. For the last 13 years, Randall has also been an associate professor of computer sciences at Alverno College, a private women’s college. At Alverno, she is active in curriculum development as well as instruction. She is also a certified instructor for the school’s nationally recognized Fast Track Entrepreneurs program.

• Daniel A. Reed of Chapel Hill, N.C., Chancellor’s Eminent Professor and vice chancellor for information technology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and director of the university’s Renaissance Computing Institute. Reed received a bachelor’s degree in computer science from UMR in 1978. He also holds master’s and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from Purdue University. He moved to North Carolina in 2004 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he led the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and the computer science department during a time when more than $100 million in public and private funds were invested in the campus to create an information technology quadrangle. His research focuses on the design of very high-speed computers and on providing new computing capabilities for scholars in science, medicine, engineering and the humanities. Reed joined the University of Illinois faculty in 1984 as an assistant professor of computer science. He headed the department from 1996 to 2001. In 2001, the University of Illinois named him a recipient of the Edward William and Jane Marr Gutgsell Professorship in recognition of his distinguished scholarship. Reed is a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) and the current chair of the Board of Directors of the Computing Research Association (CRA).