William "Bill" Decker was Interim Vice President for Research, University of lowa from March 2003 to 2005. There, he was responsible for all aspects of research administration associated with the University's research enterprise, including sponsored programs, regulatory compliance, intellectual property management and technology transfer, infrastructure, and multi-disciplinary centers and units.

Decker had served as associate vice president for research from December 1999 to March 2003, and from December 1993 to December 1999 he served as associate vice president for research and director of Information Technology Services. In addition, he was a program director for Advanced Networking Infrastructure (ANI), in the Division of Advanced Networking Infrastructure and Research, Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering Directorate, National Science Foundation (NSF), Arlington, Va. from April 1998 to September 2000. As program director, he was involved with NSF programs related to the federal Next Generation Internet project and the higher education Internet 2 project, a partnership of 108 universities that aims to create a computer network that is 100 times as fast as the Internet.

From July 1992 to 2008, Decker was an adjunct associate professor of computer science in the UI computer science department, where he served as acting chair from September to December 1987, assistant research scientist from September 1978 to July 1992 and adjunct instructor from 1976-78. He was a member of the technical staff, Hewlett-Packard Company, Information Networks Division-Data Communications Laboratory, Cupertino, Calif., summer 1979 and June to December 1981.

He was secretary from 1994-96 and vice chair from 1996-98 of the Board of Directors for CICNet, an NSF regional network for the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, an academic consortium of the Big Ten institutions and the University of Chicago. Decker served on the board of the UI Wesley Foundation, the student campus ministry of the Iowa Annual conference of the United Methodist church, from 1982-88 and from 1991-97.

At the UI's Weeg Computing Center, he served as assistant director for user services from 1976-78, research projects leader from 1973-76, and systems administrator from 1968-73.

A recipient of a UI Staff Achievement Award in 1988, he has been a member of the Association for Computing Machinery since 1966 and the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers since 1979. Decker earned his bachelor's degree in mathematics education in 1966 and his master's degree in computer science in 1968, both from the University of Iowa.

At the time of Bill's tenure there, the vice president for research oversaw some 30 administrative units, including the Division of Sponsored Programs, Research Services Administration, the Office of Corporate Partnerships, Information Technology Services, the Women in Science and Engineering Program, the Public Policy Center, University Hygienic Laboratory, Oakdale Research Park, the Technology Innovation Center (the university's business incubator), the State Archaeologist, the International Writing Program, the University of Iowa Press, and the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies. the UI ranked among the nation's top 20 public research universities in obtaining external funding, with a fiscal 2002 total of $341 million.

Bill's professional interests have included software engineering, technology management, and computer networking.

Thanks to Wayback Machine for a glimpse of Bill's webpage circa 2004! [Including this classic clip-art]