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David Ebert has been named to the role as strategic architect for the university’s “AI and data science vision,� UA said in a news release.

He will lead an interdisciplinary program to “accelerate innovation, expand research capacity and advance the university’s role as a global leader in the responsible application of AI and machine learning,� the news release said. “He will collaborate across campus with academic, administrative and IT leadership to embed AI and data science into the academic enterprise and institutional decision-making.�

Ebert has also been offered a tenured faculty member position in the UA’s College of Engineering’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

His total pay will be $448,000 a year.

Ebert’s appointment was partially possible through a new, $3.5 million gift from an anonymous donor, which also established the Computer Science Engineering Endowed Innovation Chair, which Ebert will be the first to hold. The donation also includes a earmarked amount of $1.5 million for faculty hiring.

His focus will include securing research funding in areas including human health, environmental resilience, national security, space, and the arts, the news release said. He will also coordinate the UA’s new AI and health initiative, among other responsibilities.

The new AI and health initiative is part of the UA’s strategic imperatives initiative, which includes four focused research areas in which the UA is investing $20 million, as announced by UA President Suresh Garimella March 3. The research areas include: space sciences, space technology and national security; fusion energy commercialization; modernizing mining for critical minerals; and enhancing biomedical discovery and health-care outcomes with artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Tomás Díaz de la Rubia, UA’s senior vice president for research and innovation, whom Ebert will be working under, worked with him previously at the University of Oklahoma.

Ebert most recently was the Gallogly Chair Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the Data Institute for Societal Challenges at the University of Oklahoma. Before that he was was Silicon Valley Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University; Garimella was also previously at Purdue.

Under UA’s strategic imperatives initiatives, the university also recently created a new post of special advisor for fusion energy commercialization. Horst Hahn, a materials scientist, will make $275,000 a year in that role.