Charles L. Isbell Jr.

Charles Isbell Jr.

Provost, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

Charles Isbell became the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s provost and vice chancellor for Academic Affairs in 2023. He previously served as the dean of the College of Computing at Georgia Tech. 

Isbell earned his bachelor’s degree in information and computer science from Georgia Tech and his master’s and Ph.D. at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab. His research interests are varied, but the unifying theme of his work has been using machine learning to build autonomous agents who engage directly with humans. 

In addition to leading the academic mission at UW-Madison, Isbell is highly regarded as an expert in artificial intelligence and educational reform on a national scale.