J. Alan George

In 2000, his decision to override a professor's assigned marks for a calculus class resulted in considerable news coverage on campus and a formal arbitration between the university and the professor concerned.

He served as dean of the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Waterloo from 1980 to 1986. From 1986 to 1988 he held the position of distinguished scientist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and university professor of mathematics and computer science at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He held the position of vice-president, academic and provost from 1988 until June 30, 1993. He again served as dean of mathematics from December 3, 1997, to June 30, 2005. He served as interim vice-president, academic and provost at the university from January through August 2001, and interim vice-president, university research from January 2006 through June 2007. He is currently associate provost, information systems and technology at UW, a position he has held since July, 2003, and also has been serving as interim dean of graduate studies since October 2007.

From 1991 to 1993, he was involved in a dispute ("the Edmonds affair") with the University of Waterloo and Jack Edmonds.

In 1989, George attracted some attention for his decision, as Provost, to bar the Internet newsgroup rec.humor.funny from Waterloo's news service.

George received a BSc and MSc from the University of Alberta in 1964 and 1966 respectively, and a PhD from Stanford University in 1971. His doctoral thesis was entitled Computer Implementation of the Finite Element Method and his supervisor was George Forsythe.

J. Alan George, FRSC (born November 9, 1943) is a computer scientist and university administrator.