Vice President
Earving L. Blythe
Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer
Information Technology
blythe@vt.edu
(540) 231-4227
Erv Blythe is the Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer for Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He oversees a budget of over $45 million and over 400 professional staff, faculty, and part-time
employees. Since coming to Virginia Tech in 1977 from the U.S. Department of Defense/Dept. of Navy, Mr. Blythe
has served in a number of roles, ranging from Associate Director of Computing to Principal Investigator for
the development of the Virginia Education and Research Network. He provided executive leadership and was the
primary advocate for the University's nationally recognized Electronic Villages Program, its Scholarly
Communications/Network-based Publishing Project, its Faculty Development Institute, and for its emphasis
on the development of network and computer based learning capabilities. He was also the primary architect
of the University's uniquely successful migration of its administrative systems to an enterprise-wide,
client-server based resource that fully leverages the Internet and open systems standards. Most recently,
he provided executive sponsorship and leadership in the university's entry into the high performance computing
arena. As a result, in November, 2003, a TOP500 Supercomputer Sites spokesperson announced, Virginia Tech's
System X was only the third system to exceed the 10 TeraFlop/s benchmark, at 10.28 TeraFlop/s, and the first
to be assembled by a university.
Mr. Blythe's research interest is on the technological and market structure obstacles to the emergence of
regional and national advanced communications network infrastructure. In 1997, he led the creation of a
partnership among telecommunications providers and Virginia institutions of higher education for establishing
a statewide broadband network to provide a high-bandwidth, advanced communications network known as Network
Virginia. This network is the primary mode of access to the Internet and to major national research networks
for more than 1 million Virginians. In 2000, he sponsored the establishment of the eCorridors Program to
investigate technology and business alternatives enabling commodity priced, multi-gigabits per second
communications access for communities.
Mr. Blythe has been involved in a number of collaborations focused on the planning and development of the
next generation Internet. He was a founding member of the Network Planning and Policy Advisory Council
which advises University Corporation for Advanced Network Development Trustees on matters related to the
planning, development and management of advanced networks for research and education, and he has served on
the Abilene (Internet2) Technical Advisory Committee. He is one of the founding principals driving the
development of the National LambdaRail initiative, and authored one of the key white papers advocating
its research focus and mission. Mr. Blythe is currently co-chair of EDUCAUSE's Broadband Policy Group.
Mr. Blythe serves on a number of committees, task forces and boards of directors, including the Blacksburg
Electronic Village, Inc., Virginia Tech's Corporate Research Center, Inc., and the National LambdaRail, Inc
boards. Mr. Blythe has presented numerous invited briefings and papers at the state and national levels. He
has served as the Editor of the New Horizons department in EDUCAUSE Review.
He has a B.A. degree from VPI&SU in English (1968). His Masters degree (1983) and additional graduate studies
are in the Environmental Design and Planning Program of the College of Architecture, focused on the relationship
of advanced information technology infrastructure to regional competitiveness. He has taught courses in mathematics,
computer science, and public policy; and most recently a graduate course in the School of Public and International
Affairs that explores the effects of advanced communications and information technology infrastructure on community
and regional competitiveness, and the related political and policy issues.
