Lawrence (Larry) C. Dennis is currently a professor in the iSchool.  He served as dean of the FSU College of Communication & Information from its founding in July 1, 2009, until August 9, 2021.  He earned his BS in Physics at the University of Michigan in 1974 and his PhD in Nuclear Physics at the University of Virginia in 1979.

Previously, he was Dean of the FSU College of Information (2004-2009), Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Director of the Office for Distributed and Distance Learning (ODDL) at FSU (2002-2004).  In addition, he has served as acting Director of the FSU Supercomputer Computations Research Institute. He taught physics at FSU from 1979 t0 2004 and has won a University Teaching Award and two State of Florida Teaching Incentive Program Awards. In his role as Director of ODDL, he gained extensive experience developing online degree programs and applying technology to instruction.   He is currently teaching courses in Information Systems and Services, and hopes to teach project management, database concepts, and data analytics courses in the future.

Dr. Dennis has an interest in IT education and helped establish the STARS Alliance in 2005. The STARS Alliance is focused on recruiting, retaining, and graduating more women and minorities in IT.  This Alliance has grown from its 10 original members to over 50 Colleges and Universities.  He directed the Florida IT Career Alliance, a five-year program, which successfully increased the number of students pursuing computing and IT careers, helped students find appropriate academic programs, and helped graduates find great companies in which to build a career.  He is currently working on the ASCENT program to expand the IT workforce in North Florida.  

While at FSU Dr. Dennis helped create a 5-year bachelors-masters program in computational physics, degree programs in Scientific Computing, a bachelor’s and a master’s program in Information Technology and a bachelor’s majors in Information, Communication, and Technology.