Julian Lombardi | |
---|---|
Born |
United States |
November 11, 1956
Nationality | United States |
Fields | Computer science, Biology |
Institutions | Duke University |
Known for | ViOS, Croquet Project, Open Cobalt |
Julian Lombardi (born November 11, 1956) is an American inventor, author, educator, and computer scientist known for his work with socio-computational systems, scalable virtual world technologies, and in the design and deployment of deeply collaborative virtual learning environments.
Lombardi was born to a concert pianist and an Italian actress living in New York City. His family soon moved back to Rome, Italy where he lived until the age of six. He went on to attend Buckley Country Day School and public schools in Great Neck, New York and elsewhere on Long Island. In 1974 Lombardi began his undergraduate studies at Dowling College and graduated cum laude in the Biology major and Physics minor in 1977. He attended Graduate School at Clemson University where he received his MA in 1980 and was granted a PhD in Zoology in 1983.
Upon graduation, Lombardi accepted a postdoctoral appointment and lectureship in the biological sciences at the University of North Carolina which he held until 1986. In 1986, Lombardi was appointed an Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In 1990, he received tenure and was named Director of Graduate Studies in Biology. He served on the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro until 1999. Lombardi also served as Director of the University's Analytical Visualization Center from 1993 to 1999. From 2002 to 2005, Lombardi managed a research and development group at the University of Wisconsin–Madison that specialized in the design and development of open source virtual learning environments and digital media technologies for learning and instruction. Currently Lombardi is an Assistant Vice President with Duke University's Office of Information Technology. He is also a Senior Research Scholar with Duke University's program in Information Science + Information Studies, and an adjunct professor with Duke University's Department of Computer Science.