Lee T. Todd: UK's 11th President

"I started life in Hopkins County–Earlington, Kentucky–where an engineer was somebody who drove a train."—Lee T. Todd Jr.

Dr. Lee T. Todd, Mrs. Todd, Tim Robinson, Caroline Harralson, and Rashada Alexander Dr. and Mrs. Todd talk to (left) Tim Robinson, Student Government president; Caroline Harralson, Student Government vice president; and Rashada Alexander, president of the Black Graduate and Professional Students Association.

Lee T. Todd Jr.

Earned his B.S. in electrical engineering from UK in 1968 and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1970 and 1973
Received six U.S. patents in the area of high-resolution display technology while at MIT
Taught, did research, published numerous articles, and won several teaching awards, including the UK Alumni Association Great Teacher Award, while a UK professor of electrical engineering (1974-1983)
Co-founded the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation (KSTC) in 1987; KSTC is a not-for-profit organization focused on increasing university research capacity, developing science and technology education (K-12) programs, and encouraging an entrepreneurial economy in Kentucky
Co-chaired the PRISM (Partnerships for Reform Initiatives in Science and Math) Project in 1990 with former Education Commissioner Thomas Boysen, a project that emerged as the major math and science initiative of KERA
Served on the Council on Postsecondary Education, and chaired the Distance Learning Advisory Committee responsible for the development of the Kentucky Commonwealth Virtual University and the Commonwealth Virtual Library
Became senior vice president of Lotus Development in May 2000, responsible for Lotus products, including Notes, Domino and SmartSuite, and oversaw collaborative products such as Sametime and QuickPlace
Began his term as UK's 11th president on July 1, 2001

"We need to have a 'higher purpose' in our approach. It's taking the Kentucky uglies—the low literacy, poor health, low income—and having a higher purpose to say, 'Let's look at the things that have held Kentucky back and see how we can help.'"—Lee T. Todd Jr.

Research

About Projectron
In 1981, Dr. Todd founded Projectron Inc. to manufacture projection cathode ray tubes (CRTs) for the flight simulation industry. The Projectron picture tube was used in approximately 90 percent of commercial flight simulators as well as numerous military simulators. In 1990, Projectron was sold to Hughes Aircraft Company. Dr. Todd convinced Hughes to move its other CRT operations in California and New York to Kentucky. He worked with the University of Kentucky and state government officials to start UK's Coldstream Research Campus with Hughes Display Products being the first tenant.

About Databeam
Dr. Todd incorporated DataBeam in 1976, but major financing and product development did not occur until 1983. Located in Lexington, Kentucky, DataBeam developed large-screen, high-resolution displays where images of documents could be transmitted to multiple sites so that people can view them and work on them together as if meeting in person. The company makes conferencing and distance-learning servers based on the T.120 data communication standard that allows users to share data and applications online. DataBeam, which was sold to IBM in 1998, currently employs 100 people in Lexington. The vast majority of the technical staff are UK engineering and computer science graduates.