Vienna, VA — Digital Scholar, a leading nonprofit organization which builds critical open-source infrastructure for the digital humanities, is pleased to announce the appointment of Sean Takats as its co-Chief Executive Officer (CEO), with a special focus on research and development. Dr. Takats brings with him a spirit of innovation and an extensive background in designing and developing essential open source software for research and scholarship.
As CEO, Takats will play a key role in enriching both Digital Scholar's trusted software initiatives and its new ventures. He will be responsible for integrating emerging technologies into Digital Scholar’s operations, directing Zotero and Tropy, and leading an effort to foster strong relationships with the academic and research communities to identify new needs and opportunities.
Takats comes to Digital Scholar with decades of experience as an historian and as the director of a range of end-user digital tools for research. Most recently, Takats spent six years as Full Professor and FNR PEARL Chair at the University of Luxembourg. In that position, Takats led the Digital History Advanced Research Projects Accelerator at the Luxembourg Center for Contemporary and Digital History, supported by EUR 6 million in funding from the Luxembourg National Research Fund and the University of Luxembourg.
Prior to joining the University of Luxembourg, Takats spent more than a dozen years at George Mason University’s Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media directing research initiatives and leading the Zotero, Tropy, and PressForward projects. During that time, his research was supported by a range of private and public funding agencies including the Mellon Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Takats holds a doctorate in history from the University of Michigan and a bachelor's degree in economics and history from Yale. He is the author of The Expert Cook in Enlightenment France (2011), published by the Johns Hopkins University Press.
“I’m delighted to have Sean joining Digital Scholar as co-CEO,” said fellow co-CEO Sharon Leon. “He is an unparalleled leader in the field of computational digital history, and has tremendous leadership experience. I have had the good fortune to work closely with Sean in guiding Digital Scholar’s rapid growth over the last decade. His steady hand has ensured the stability of our software products and pushed development into new and exciting areas, especially in his crucial leadership of the research management software teams–all while also maintaining a distinguished record of scholarship at first, the Rosenzweig Center, and more recently at the University of Luxembourg. The board and I eagerly await the new avenues of development that will arise from having the benefit of his full concentration, particularly in exploring the possibilities made available through emerging technologies.”
“I'm thrilled to step into this role full-time,” said Takats. “Since its founding Digital Scholar has worked to serve scholars’ needs, and over the last fifteen years we’ve proven that the most successful tools are ones built from a deep understanding of those scholars' actual workflows. As co-CEO, I'm excited to continue that mission of strengthening scholarly practice while maintaining our commitment to open, accessible infrastructure. And as new computational approaches continue to emerge, I'm eager to explore them carefully and collaboratively to understand where they can truly enhance scholarship while staying grounded in our core values.”
As a co-founder of the company in 2009,Takats’s assumption of a full-time leadership role at Digital Scholar stands as the culmination of his contributions to the organization, including serving for more than a decade as President of its Board of Directors.
About Digital Scholar:
Committed to the responsible stewardship of critical open-source infrastructure for the digital humanities, Digital Scholar was founded in 2009 to develop and operate the business models for Omeka and Zotero. Having secured their long-term sustainability and independence, Digital Scholar has since helped launch and sustain a growing family of software projects, including Tropy, PressForward, and Sourcery.