John M. Atkins

Dr. John M. Atkins, Professor Emeritus, LDCSEE and Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, earned a B.S. in Mathematics from Marshall University in 1965. He went on to earn an M.A. in Mathematics from WVU in 1967 and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Pittsburgh in 1973. At the conclusion of his studies at Pitt, he joined Bethany College as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics. He earned an M.S. in Computer Science from WVU in 1980 after which he joined WVU as an Assistant Professor of Computer Science.

Dr. Atkins continued to serve as professor at WVU for 30 years, teaching undergraduate and graduate computer science courses, principally courses on database design. He served as Computer Science Graduate Coordinator and Associate Chair for Academic Affairs. His research included several projects involving Oracle as well as database normalization theory. He served as principal investigator on a research project to provide support for the WV Workers Compensation Division and the WV Insurance Commission. Throughout his career, he published more than 30 technical papers, in many cases in collaboration with other LCSEE faculty. He served as a member of many honorary and technical societies and professional organizations, and in many cases served as an Advisor to these organizations.

For ManTech International Corporation, Dr. Atkins provided specialized expertise and consulting on database architecture, design, and development and database technologies for programs within the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). He worked on DoD programs and databases supporting military logistics systems. He conducted research in applying the semantic web to and incorporating metadata into DLA's net-centric vision. As a consultant to the NASA funded AdaNet project, Dr. Atkins assisted in the design of a database repository for Ada artifacts.

During his 30 years with WVU, Dr. Atkins received numerous awards and recognition. He was awarded the Outstanding Teaching Award twice from CEMR and an Outstanding Professor Award from the WVU College of Arts & Sciences. He received both an Outstanding Teaching Award and Outstanding Service Award from the CSEE Department, and he received an Outstanding Advising Award from the University Honors Program. He was named Outstanding Professor by the Sphinx Senior Honorary and Golden Key National Honorary. He was also named Professor of the Year at Bethany College in 1976.

Dr. Atkins has been married to his wife Margaret for 47 years and has one son, Ben, and one grandson, Jack.