Nancy M. Amato

Nancy M. Amato is the Abel Bliss Professor of Engineering and Director of the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), within the Grainger College of Engineering. She holds degrees from Stanford (B.S. in Mathematical Sciences and Economics), UC Berkeley (M.S. in Computer Science), and UIUC (Ph.D.). Her leadership roles include CRA Board Chair, IEEE RAS President Elect, and ACM Council Member-at-Large. Amato is a Fellow of AAAI, AAAS, ACM, and IEEE, and a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Her research focuses on robotics (task/motion planning, multi-robot systems), computational biology (protein-drug interactions), parallel computing (STAPL project collaboration with Lawrence Rauchwerger), and computational geometry. She pioneered sampling-based motion planning for robotics and computational biology, including protein folding studies. Current projects include the NSF Expeditions 'Mind in Vitro' exploring biological neuron-based computing.

Amato has mentored 29 PhD students (many in academia/industry), 30+ masters, 100+ undergrads, and 10+ high school students, prioritizing underrepresented groups. She co-leads the CRA-WP Distributed REU program, fostering diversity in computing. Awards include the IEEE RAS Saridis Leadership Award (2019) and UC Berkeley's Distinguished CS Alumnus Award (2024).