AI expert Kavita Bala named provost of Cornell University

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Kavita Bala, dean of the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science (Cornell Bowers CIS), was named the university’s 17th provost, the Ivy League university announced September 25. Bala’s five-year appointment will begin Jan. 1, 2025. Bala is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

“Kavita has done an outstanding job as dean of Cornell Bowers CIS, shepherding the college’s growth, supporting its diversity, fostering its interdisciplinarity and collaborations and staking Cornell’s leadership in research and innovation,” Interim President Michael I. Kotlikoff is quoted saying in a news report on the university website. “She’ll now bring her copious talents – as a researcher, entrepreneur, teacher, visionary leader and administrator – to the entire university.”

The Indian American expert in computer vision and graphics, will succeed John Siliciano, professor of law in Cornell Law School, who has served as interim provost since July 1. Prior to Siliciano, Kotlikoff held the position since 2015. He left the post in July to serve as interim president, after President Martha E. Pollack announced her retirement.

“It is an incredible honor and privilege to serve as Cornell’s next provost,” Bala said. “We are living in an age of tremendous and rapid societal change driven by technological innovation. With Cornell’s intellectual breadth, we are positioned to meet both the challenges and the opportunity of our time. As provost, I hope to foster an environment where all Cornellians can realize their intellectual potential, do their best work and have a positive impact on the world.”

Bala has been at Cornell for 25 years. “I look forward to bringing together scholars and students from colleges and units across Cornell’s campuses to pursue discovery and innovation, and to solve the big challenges we face today,” she said.

In 2020, Bala helped secure the gift to name Cornell Bowers CIS and became its inaugural dean. She then led the school through a period of rapid growth, securing funds for a new 135,000 square-foot building, to open in 2025, that will allow for new labs, experiential learning opportunities for students and space for the growing faculty.

Bala serves as the lead dean of the Cornell AI Initiative, created minors in AI and AI in Society (to launch in 2025), and established the NewYork Presbyterian–Cornell Cardiovascular AI Initiative and the Schmidt AI for Science postdoctoral program.

Bala has made foundational contributions to the fields of computer graphics and computer vision, including in the rendering of computer-generated images, representing and modeling complex materials and visual discovery in satellite images and large photo collections, Cornell noted. With her doctoral student, she co-founded GrokStyle, a visual recognition AI company, which IKEA integrated into an augmented reality application. The company was then acquired by Facebook in 2019. The Rubin Museum of Art in New York City featured her work on 3D mandalas in 2008.

Bala is the recipient of numerous awards. She earned her master’s and doctoral degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She came to Cornell in 1999 as a postdoctoral researcher and became an assistant professor of computer science in 2002.