Information policy expert appointed distinguished Professor in Residence

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Lisa Shirota, (808) 956-7352
Communications Director, Social Sciences, Dean's Office
Posted: Sep 3, 2015

Richard Taylor
Richard Taylor

Richard Taylor, an internationally renowned telecommunications and information policy expert, has been named Distinguished Professor in Residence in the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) in the College of Social Sciences (CSS) at UH Mānoa. Taylor, Emeritus Palmer Chair and Professor of Telecommunications Studies and Law at Penn State University, will work with faculty and students in SSRI and the CSS School of Communications in securing funding and donor support, and developing initiatives in the field of Information and Communication Technology.

Said CSS Dean Denise Konan, “We are delighted to have someone of Richard Taylor’s caliber in the Social Science Research Institute. He is a great resource not only for our students, but also the broader community. There is no doubt that Richard’s presence will raise the prominence and prestige of the college and the university."

Taylor, the founding co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Information Policy and the founding co-Director of the Penn State Institute for Information Policy, has held many offices and received many honors. He was Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Pacific Telecommunications Council (2013-2015), where he currently remains on the Board.  He was also a member of President Barack Obama’s Telecommunications Policy Advisory Committee.

For the last six years, he has organized and co-chaired a semi-annual series of Experts’ Workshops, funded by a multi-year grant from The Ford Foundation, to make scholarly research accessible to policymakers.  His work has received support from Verizon, IBM, Google, AT&T, Microsoft, T-Mobile and the Social Science Research Council, among others.  In 2002, he was appointed an IBM Faculty Partner for his work in the area of information metrics.

Taylor has also published widely on ICT activities in the Pacific Region, including Information Technology Parks of the Asia Pacific: Lessons for the Regional Digital Divide, with Dr. Meheroo Jussawalla (Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 2003), Beyond Broadband Access: Developing Data-Based Information Policy Strategies, with Professor Amit Schejter (New York: Fordham University Press, 2013) and Information Policy in the Age of the Network Economy (in Chinese), with Drs. Zhou Hongren and Zhang Bin (Beijing: Publishing House of Electronics Industry, 2014).

The College of Social Sciences is committed to innovative research initiatives that build upon the college’s strengths and provide unique social science perspectives in areas that play essential roles in the university’s research efforts. Historically, the college and its Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) have been leaders in the areas of environmental change, health informatics, behavioral health, economics and social innovation.

The School of Communications  in the College of Social Sciences at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa offers academic programs in Communication and Journalism. Communication focuses on communication in intercultural and professional communities, information and communication technologies (ICTs) and policy, and the media arts. Journalism is professionally oriented and develops critical thinking skills and ability to gather, analyze, and organize information, and to communicate it clearly and responsibly through print, broadcast, and online media.

The College of Social Sciences (CSS) at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa is engaged in a broad range of research endeavors that address fundamental questions about human behavior and the workings of local, national and international political, social, economic and cultural institutions. Its vibrant student-centered academic climate supports outstanding scholarship through internships, and active and service learning approaches to teaching that prepare students for the life-long pursuit of knowledge.