Peter Lee, a past member of the CCC Council and the PI of the first CIFellows Project, today was named the Managing Director of Microsoft Research Redmond, effective this fall.

In joining Microsoft Research, Peter departs DARPA, where he has been the
Director of the agency’s Transformational Convergence Technology Office
(TCTO) for the past year. There Peter has

challenged conventional Department of Defense (DoD) approaches to computer science research by infusing new energy into [DARPA]’s relationships with academia and industry and reinforcing the agency’s unique role at the intersection of research and application.

Today, TCTO is re-establishing basic research programs in a broad range of
rapidly emerging computing-enabled technology areas such as social media,
synthetic biology, high-performance computing, and networking, as well as
employing a diverse range of innovation strategies including broad community programs, competitions/challenges, and crowd sourcing.

One of the highlights of his work at DARPA was the DARPA Network Challenge, which mobilized millions of people worldwide in a hunt for red weather balloons — a unique experiment in social media and open innovation that made an impact on thinking throughout the DoD.

For the past year, we’ve had one of our very best in a leadership position
at DARPA, and we thank Peter for his outstanding service and
wish him the best as he transitions into his new role.