Mark E. Dean, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus
Tickle College of Engineering
University of Tennessee
Former Chief Technology Officer of the Middle East and Africa, and Fellow
IBM
Graduate, Florida Atlantic University

43 U.S. Patents

Mark E. Dean is Professor Emeritus and former Interim Dean of the Tickle College of Engineering and John Fisher Distinguished Professor at the University of Tennessee. Former Chief Technology Officer of the Middle East and Africa for IBM, IBM Fellow and a graduate of Florida Atlantic University, Dean’s research focuses on advanced computer architecture, data centric computing and computational sciences.

Dean has been the driving force behind a number of revolutionary computer system advances, from embedded systems to supercomputers, including testing of the first gigahertz CMOS microprocessor, and establishing the team that developed the Blue Gene supercomputer. He was also chief engineer for the development of the IBM PC/AT, PS/2 Model 70 & 80, the Color Graphics Adapter in the original IBM PC, and holds three of the nine patents for the original IBM PC. Most notably, he is named as the co-inventor of the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) “bus,” which permitted add-on devices like the keyboard, disk drives and printers to be connected to the motherboard.

Over the course of his nearly 40-year career at IBM, Dean was responsible for technical strategy, technical skills development and exploring new technology-based solutions for the region. These responsibilities included the development of solutions specific for the emerging needs of the businesses in industry segments such as mobile services (banking, healthcare, education, government), natural resource management (oil, gas, mining, forest, water), cloud-based business services, and security (fraud protection, risk management, privacy, cybersecurity).

Dean’s most recent awards include: National Institute of Science Outstanding Scientist Award, member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, member of the National Academy of Engineering, IEEE Fellow, Black Engineer of the Year, the University of Tennessee COE Dougherty Award, member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and recipient of the Ronald H. Brown American Innovators Award.