Brian D. Davison, professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) at Lehigh University, has been appointed the Daniel E. ’39 and Patricia M. Smith Endowed Chair, effective November 1, 2025.
The appointment marks the first time this endowed chair has been held by a faculty member in the CSE department.
The chair was established in 2002 by Daniel E. Smith Jr. ’71 H’14 and his wife, Elizabeth Riley, in honor of Smith’s parents. It is intended to support a distinguished faculty member who advances the university's research capabilities and academic reputation in engineering and science.
A pioneer in the optical networking industry and co-founder of Sycamore Networks, Smith is a former chair of Lehigh’s Board of Trustees with a transformative legacy of giving. In addition to this endowed chair, the family’s philanthropy includes the Smith Family Laboratory for Optical Technologies, the Smith Funds for Research and Innovation in Science and Engineering, and the Smith Family Head Men’s Lacrosse Coach position.
“I am deeply honored to hold this chair, particularly given Dan Smith’s own groundbreaking work in computer networking—a field that shaped my early career and dissertation," says Davison. “It is a privilege to steward the legacy of the Smith Chair. I am eager to leverage this support toward meaningful contributions to our university and the broader scientific community.”
Davison, who serves as a member of Lehigh’s Institute for Data, Intelligent Systems and Computation (I-DISC), has been a driving force behind Lehigh’s expansion in data science. He is a co-founder of the interdisciplinary MS in Data Science program and the founding director of the undergraduate minor in data science. Additionally, he co-founded Lehigh’s Center for Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience and its associated master’s degree program.
His research focuses on AI and data science techniques for problems such as search, mining, recommendation, and classification problems in text, images, datasets, and the web. He has also been deeply engaged in interdisciplinary research for more than a decade, including work in disaster resilience and catastrophe modeling.
He is currently collaborating with Anand Jagota, Lehigh’s vice provost for research, and colleagues on a bioengineering research project (funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health) focused on developing nanosensor-based systems to detect disease in biofluids.
Over the course of his career, Davison has authored hundreds of peer-reviewed publications that have received thousands of citations. He has advised more than a dozen PhD students, who now hold positions in academia and industry.
During his most recent sabbatical, he worked in the Core Data Science group at Facebook (now Meta). His work has been supported by agencies such as NSF (including an NSF CAREER Award), NIH, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), as well as by industry partners, including Microsoft, Amazon, and Sun Microsystems.
Beyond the university, Davison has served since 2020 as president of the board of Bethlehem Area Moravians, a nonprofit organization that stewards many of the city’s historic properties recognized as part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, while also supporting community outreach and housing initiatives that serve Bethlehem’s older adult population.
Davison joined the faculty of the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science in 2001. He was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2009 and became a full professor in 2021.
The endowed chair appointment coincides with Davison’s 25th year at Lehigh University.
He earned his BS in computer engineering from Bucknell University and his MS and PhD in computer science from Rutgers University. He previously served as associate director of I-DISC and regularly teaches courses on data science.
