Some of the work Savvides had been involved in that made him eligible for the appointment was the development of algorithms to create three-dimensional facial models from two-dimensional samples as well as technology to better use the anatomy of the human iris to find matches in a biometric system despite issues with partial images.

Savvides will be joining colleagues from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Clemson University and North Carolina A&T State University at the new center.