Best wishes for a safe, healthy holiday season.

— Jeff Harris & the team at Harris Search Associates The Circuit News from the halls of academic engineering, science, and technology December 2020

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STEM-ingNews thefrom the pandemic halls of academic engineering, science, and technology Campus-based engineers, data scientists target COVID-19 cademic engineering and technology remain at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19, as university-based researchersSeptember pursue 2020 — and deliver — breakthroughs in the detection and mitigation of the virus. Researchers at NorthwesternA University’s McCormick School of Engineering, for example, have Northwestern University developed an AI platform that detects COVID-19 by analyzing X-rays of the lungs. Dubbed DeepCOVID-XR, the machine-learning algorithm proved to be about 10 = times faster and up to 6 percent more accurate than a team of specialized thoracic AI MORE ‘EYES’ radiologists in spotting the disease. The researchers’ findings were published in the The lungs of many COVID-19 November 24 edition of the journal Radiology. “We are not aiming to replace actual patients appear patchy and hazy in X-rays — but so do the lungs testing,” said the study’s senior author, Aggelos Katsaggelos, PhD, the Joseph Cummings Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at of people with pneumonia, Northwestern. “X-rays are routine, safe, and inexpensive. It would heart failure, and various other take seconds for our system to screen a patient and determine if that illnesses. It takes trained eyes patient needs to be isolated.” Meanwhile, scientists at UCLA’s to tell the difference. Now, Samueli School of Engineering have demonstrated that cold though, an algorithm developed atmospheric plasma — an electrically charged gas known as the by researchers at Northwestern fourth state of matter — can kill the novel coronavirus on a variety of University offers another set of surfaces in as little as 30 seconds. According to a study published in ”eyes.” DeepCOVID-XR was Aggelos tested against five experienced Katsaggelos the journal Physics of Fluids, the virus can live for tens of hours on many surfaces, including plastic, metal, cardboard, and leather. The cardiothoracic radiologists on study’s leader, Richard Wirz, PhD, a professor of mechanical and aerospace 300 random test images from engineering at UCLA, noted that plasma, unlike chemicals and UV light, can Northwestern Medicine’s Lake decontaminate porous surfaces such as cardboard and skin without damaging them. Forest Hospital. Each radiologist A sampling of other recent advances: Scientists at the Stanford University School of took 2½ to 3½ hours to examine Engineering have produced a genetic “microlab” — half the size of a credit card — the images; the AI system took that can detect COVID-19 in 30 minutes; researchers at the University of Central 18 minutes. The radiologists’ Florida’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering have identified accuracy ranged from 76 percent physiological features common in “super-spreaders”; and engineers at Rensselaer to 81 percent, compared with Polytechnic Institute have developed an algorithm that helps physicians determine 82 percent for the algorithm. whether a COVID-19 patient should be hospitalized. READ MORE

University at Buffalo The Structure for Outdoor Autonomy Research — or SOAR — at the University at Buffalo covers more than half an acre and stands 86 feet tall, making it one of the nation’s largest netted enclosures dedicated to the testing and development of uncrewed aerial vehicles, or drones. Buffalo joins growing number of schools with drone-testing enclosures t might look like a driving range for the world’s worst golfers, but the newest research facility at the University at Buffalo (UB) is all about bogies, not ? bogeys. SOAR — short for Structure for Outdoor Autonomy Research — is a DRIVING RANGE Inetted, 24,000-square-foot complex that will enable UB faculty, students, and YUP — FOR UAVs research partners to conduct experiments with uncrewed aerial vehicles, or UAVs, more commonly known as unmanned aerial vehicles or drones. The SOAR will enable faculty, students, facility, located on the university’s North Campus, will “help solidify UB’s position and research partners to pursue at the forefront of research and education in a technology that could improve advances in four fast-growing fields: everything from commerce and national security to emergency response and Autonomous technology agriculture,” the university said in a news release. The structure will also serve as Artificial intelligence will allow a resource for undergraduate and graduate students studying robotics and UAVs, self-driving vehicles, and computer vision. SOAR covers more than half an acre and stands 86 feet tall. In other machines to function — and terms of cubic feet, it is believed to be the third-largest netted drone complex in even improve their operation — the United States. Similar drone “cages" can be found on or near a growing without human intervention. number of campuses, including Kansas State University, the University of Sensors and surveillance California-San Diego, the University of Maryland, the University of , the Remote monitoring could prove University of Pennsylvania, Northeastern University, and Virginia Tech. Because useful in myriad arenas, including the foregoing test sites are enclosed and thus considered indoor flight facility, the homeland security, agriculture, researchers who use them are not subject to Federal Aviation Administration firefighting, engineering, public regulations. “The University at Buffalo is committed to addressing society’s most health, and law enforcement. challenging issues,” said Kemper Lewis, PhD, dean UB’s School of Engineering Parcel delivery and logistics and Applied Sciences. “By creating a research complex dedicated to exploring the UAVs have shown promise as a tremendous potential of uncrewed aerial vehicles, UB researchers, students, and means of making deliveries to our partners will advance cutting-edge solutions that can help global food security remote, congested, or otherwise challenges, disaster response, and anti-terrorism.” SOAR’s construction was difficult-to-access locations. made possible by a $393,000 grant from the Office of Naval Research’s Defense University Research Instrumentation Program. The funding was secured by Drone-fleet management Chase Murray, PhD, an assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering Multiple UAVs flying in unison in UB’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “Our plan is to leave the might have applications in combat, netting up year-round,” said Murray, who studies UAV routing and logistics. disaster relief, and even the arts. “This will enable us to conduct tests and improve the performance of UAVs in the often-harsh winter weather conditions that we encounter.” READ MORE

University of Michigan; Lynn Conway Professor Emerita Lynn Conway delivered the 2018 Winter Commencement address at the , where she taught after working with elite research and development teams at Memorex (top) and the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (upper right). IBM apologizes for firing a transgender researcher five-plus decades ago ifty-two years after firing a promising computer engineer who had revealed to supervisors that she was changing gender, IBM has issued a formal apology and presented the former employee, now 82, with IBM’s Lifetime Achievement Award for her pioneering work in , reports. Lynn Conway was Fhonored last month at a ceremony streamed live to some 1,200 company employees. “I wanted to say to you here today, Lynn, for that experience in our company and all the hardships that followed, I am truly sorry,” said Diane Gherson, IBM’s senior vice president and a special adviser to the company’s CEO. Gherson added that although the company now actively supports “transitioning employees,” no amount of progress could make up for the treatment that Conway received in 1968. Conway said the event brought her a degree of closure. “It was so unexpected,” Conway told The Times in an interview. “It was stunning.” Conway landed a job at IBM in 1964, after graduating from ’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. At the time, she was living as a man named Robert. Her bosses at IBM were so impressed with her work and intellect that they assigned her to an elite team secretly designing the world’s fastest Conway worked for IBM , a pet project of the company’s then-chairman, Thomas Watson Jr. Conway’s from 1964 to 1968. once-bright future at IBM dimmed when she told a supervisor that she was “undertaking a gender transition to resolve a terrible existential situation” that she had faced since childhood. IBM executives feared that Conway’s continued employment would elicit “scandalous publicity,” and the company’s medical director reportedly expressed concern that Conway’s colleagues “might suffer major emotional problems.” Following her firing, Conway underwent gender confirmation surgery and set out to rebuild her career. She found work at Memorex in 1971. Two years later, she was recruited by the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, where she developed computer-chip design methods that eventually would be adopted by tech companies around the world. In 1983, Conway was picked to head a supercomputer program at the Defense Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. In 1985, she became a professor of and computer science at the University of Michigan and associate dean of the university’s College of Engineering. She was subsequently elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Conway did not publicly reveal that she was transgender until 1999, when she learned that researchers were delving into the IBM project on which she had worked prior to her termination. In 2000, she created a website to share her story — and “illuminate and normalize the issues of gender identity and the processes of gender transition.” Conway told The Times that said she harbored no ill will for the IBM executives who fired her. “To go back and slam and blame and defame people — there is a problem with that,” she said, “because it tends to divide people and create an angst that’s unresolvable.” READ MORE

Purdue, Morgan State take a step for rocketry — and a leap for diversity urdue University boasts one of the nation’s premier programs in aeronautics and astronautics. Indeed, the university has produced 25 astronauts, including the first and last men to set foot on the moon — more Pthan any U.S. postsecondary institution, aside from the nation’s service academies. Now, Purdue has agreed to lend its expertise to Morgan State University as the Baltimore institution launches a student rocketry program, a \ first among the nation’s historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Morgan State moved to establish the rocketry program and open a state-of-the- art rocketry lab after securing a three-year, $1.6 million grant from Base 11, a California-based nonprofit “focused on solving the STEM-talent pipeline crisis being fueled by the underrepresentation of women and minorities.” Morgan State hopes to parlay the rocketry initiative into a full-scale aeronautical engineering program — and that’s where the school’s just-announced partnership with Purdue comes into play. As part of the collaboration, engineering students will be able to earn dual degrees from Morgan State and Purdue. Specifically, Morgan State students studying civil engineering or engineering physics can complete three years on the university’s campus in Baltimore, earning enough credits for a bachelor’s degree, and then transfer to Purdue’s campus in West Lafayette, Indiana, where they can earn a BS in aeronautical and astronautical engineering. Purdue President Mitch Daniels, JD, said the so-called “3+2” degree arrangement complements his university’s push for diversity and inclusion. “One area that we have not done well enough in is the Purdue University successful recruitment and preparation of enough students and young people of color, first-generation students, and low-income students,” Daniels said. “We Purdue University will supply have to be much better in this area, and the program with Morgan State fits Morgan State University’s new directly into this ambition.” Morgan State President David K. Wilson, EdD, said rocketry lab with technology the dual-degree program represents a “crucial step” in his school’s development and equipment, including the of a standalone aerospace science and engineering program. “The future is now, student-designed liquid and Morgan is firmly planted at the doorstep of ushering the next generation of oxygen/liquid methane engine scientists, engineers, professionals, and business entrepreneurs for tomorrow’s shown above firing at Purdue’s interconnected, global economies,” Wilson said. Although Morgan State’s Board Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories. of Regents approved a program outline during its most recent quarterly meeting, the two universities still have to finalize details. READ MORE New research hubs promote cutting-edge science everal universities across the United States are establishing research hubs FRONT & CENTERS dedicated to the development of high-demand skills and technologies. MIT New interdisciplinary research hubs is responsible for two of the institutional newcomers: the Center for Exascale are popping up in spite of — or, in SimulationS of Materials in Extreme Environments (CESMIX) and the Center for some instances, because of — the Multi-Cellular Engineered Living Systems. CESMIX, based in the Center for COVID-19 pandemic. Among them: Computational Science and Engineering (CCSE) in MIT’s Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, aims to provide a better understanding of how complex materials behave in extremely harsh environments, such as those experienced during spaceflights. Because reproducing these environments in a lab would be all but impossible, computational modeling and simulation have become indispensable predictive tools. CESMIX’s lead investigator, Youssef Marzouk, PhD, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and co-director of CCSE, said the center’s mission is twofold: “to solve an incredibly challenging multiscale simulation problem, harnessing quantum mechanical models of complex materials to achieve unprecedented accuracy at the engineering scale” MIT and to create tools that make development of the associated software stack “as The Center for Exascale Simulation easy as possible.” MIT’s other new center takes a multidisciplinary approach to of Materials in Extreme designing purpose-driven living systems, or M-CELS. Although M-CELS are Environment will reside in MIT’s engineered for carry out specific functions, the design process takes into account Schwarzman College of Computing. the phenomenon of emergence, thereby allowing the final systems to evolve through natural and nonnatural biological processes. Based in MIT’s School of Engineering, the Center for M-CELS will focus on government- and industry- funded research related to microphysiological systems and disease modeling. The center, which is expected to make significant contributions to the development of pharmaceuticals, is led by Roger Kamm, PhD, the Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor of Biological and Mechanical Engineering; Linda Griffith, PhD, the School of Engineering Teaching Innovation Professor of Biological and Mechanical Engineering; and Ron Weiss, PhD, a professor of biological engineering and electrical engineering and computer science. “We plan to MIT coalesce a group at MIT with the common goal of understanding the fundamental The Center for Multicellular processes that underlie and determine the form and function of all multicellular Engineered Living Systems will be systems,” Kamm said. “New opportunities and capabilities stem from a recently based in MIT’s School of Engineering. gained appreciation of how biological systems emerge through self-assembly, and how we, as engineers and scientists, can guide this process, drawing upon the unique intrinsic capabilities of individual cells.” At the University at Buffalo, researchers in chemical, biological, and biomedical engineering are teaming up to focus on regenerative medicine. The Center for Cell, Gene, and Tissue Engineering (CGTE) will be led by SUNY Distinguished Professor Stelios Andreadis, PhD, the director of UB’s Stem Cells in Regenerative Medicine (SCiRM) Training Program and a former chairman of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. At Purdue University, a new interdisciplinary center seeks to drive University at Buffalo innovation for students at the nexus of engineering and live entertainment. Built The Center for Cell, Gene, and Tissue upon a longstanding partnership between the College of Engineering and the Engineering will reside in UB’s School College of Liberal Arts, Purdue’s newly created Fusion Studio for Entertainment of Engineering and Applied Sciences. and Engineering (FSEE) will seek to satisfy an increasing demand for spectacle and an immersive experience among attendees of theatrical performances, rock concerts, and other live entertainment events. The center will be co-directed by Mary Pilotte, PhD, associate professor of engineering practice in the School of Engineering Education, and Rich Dionne, MFA, associate professor of theatre practice in the Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Design, Art, and Performance. Pilotte noted that FSEE’s launch might seem ill-timed, inasmuch as the COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for live entertainment. However, she said, the relative scarcity of live events has expedited the convergence of high- Purdue University fidelity acoustics, virtual reality, and augmented performance. Pilotte maintains that audiences have never been so hungry for immersive virtual performances — The Fusion Studio for Entertainment musical and theatrical — that engage a wide variety of technologies. “This is not and Engineering bridges Purdue’s only gaining ground because it is safe,” she said, “but also because it is able to colleges of Engineering and Liberal Arts. access a global audience like never before.” READ MORE INNOVATORS podcast

“Bringing experience to bear in addressing novel challenges”

Donde Plowman, PhD Chancellor,University of Tennessee-Knoxville

Recent INNOVATORS podcasts “Protecting the nation from once-unimaginable threats,” featuring retired Lt. Gen. Robert C. Hinson, founding executive director of the National Strategic Research Institute at the University of Nebraska LISTEN “Making campus health a chief concern,” featuring Bernadette M. Melnyk, PhD, chief wellness officer, vice president for health promotion, and dean of the College of Nursing at Ohio State University LISTEN “Designing good health: Biomedical engineering comes of age,” featuring Ajit Yoganathan, PhD, the Wallace H. Coulter Distinguished Faculty Chair in Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech LISTEN “Weighing the strengths and weaknesses of America’s public health system in the time of COVID-19,” featuring Donna Petersen, ScD, dean of the College of Public Health at the University of South Florida LISTEN “Building elegant technological solutions to complex scientific problems,” featuring former NASA Deputy Administrator Lesa B. Roe, MS, chancellor of the University of North Texas System LISTEN

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The University of Nebraska Medical Center chooses Harris Search Associates to lead the search for the chair of its Department of Epidemiology Harris Search Associates recruits Talitha Washington to serve as director of the Data Science Institute Initiative at the Atlanta University Center Consortium The University at Buffalo selects Harris Search Associates to oversee the search for the director of its Institute for Computational Data Sciences

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Adel Ali, PhD, is several months into his tenure as dean of the College of Science and Engineering at Minnesota’s St. Cloud State University. He had been serving in the role in an interim capacity since 2016. Ali, who is also director of the School of Computing, Engineering, and Environment, was associate dean of the college from 2013 to 2016. During his stint as interim dean, Ali, an authority on computational intelligence, revamped the college’s classrooms and created a visualization lab.

Arindam Banerjee, PhD, a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, has been appointed Founder Professor of Computer Science in the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois. He will start in January. Banerjee specializes in the application of machine learning and data mining to real-world problems such as climate science, ecology, recommendation systems, finance, medicine, and aviation safety.

Mark Becker, PhD, president of Georgia State University, has announced plans to step down from his administrative post in June. Becker, a statistician by training, has overseen significant enrollment, programmatic, and facility growth during his tenure. Prior to joining Georgia State in 2009, Becker served as executive vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of South Carolina and, before that, as dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota.

Craig H. Benson, PhD, dean of the University of Virginia School of Engineering and the Hamilton Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has announced that he will step down from his administrative post on June 30. After a yearlong leave, he will return to teaching and research as a member of the school’s faculty. Before becoming dean in 2015, Benson chaired the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Geological Engineering at the University of Wisconsin.

Clifford Brangwynne, PhD, professor of chemical and biological engineering at Princeton University, has been named inaugural director of the Princeton Bioengineering Initiative, which is intended to “ignite new directions in research, education, and innovation at the intersection of the life sciences and engineering.” Officials said they expect the initiative will lead to a bioengineering institute and a new building to house interdisciplinary research in the field. Brangwynne joined Princeton’s faculty in 2011.

Alvie Coes III, MBA, MEd, has been appointed dean of engineering and industrial technology at Piedmont Technical College in Greenwood, South Carolina. For the past three years, he has served as academic dean of the Technology, Engineering, and Manufacturing Division at Georgia’s Athens Technical College. Coes, a doctoral candidate at the University of Georgia, previously was an administrative coordinator at Georgia Southern University and an adjunct instructor at Ogeechee Technical College.

France Córdova, PhD, former director of the National Science Foundation, NASA chief scientist, and president of Purdue University, has been appointed inaugural chair of the newly formed AIP Foundation, recently established by the American Institute of Physics Board of Directors. Before her tenure as president of Purdue, Córdova, a noted astrophysicist, was chancellor of the University of California- Riverside and vice chancellor for research at the University of California-Santa Barbara.

Chris Cornelius, PhD, has been named chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Iowa State University, effective January 1. Cornelius, who will hold the department's Wilkinson Chair, is currently a chemical engineering professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). He also served as associate dean for research in the UNL College of Engineering. Before entering academia, Cornelius worked for Sandia National Laboratories, 3M, and Dow Chemical.

Juan de Pablo, PhD, has been named vice president for national laboratories, science strategy, innovation, and global initiatives at the University of Chicago. He was previously vice president for national laboratories, the Liew Family Professor in Molecular Engineering, and senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. Before joining Chicago’s faculty in 2012, the chemical engineer was the Howard Curler Distinguished Professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Usama M. Fayyad, PhD, has been appointed executive director of Northeastern University’s Institute of Experiential Artificial Intelligence. Launched a year ago, the institute studies application-driven, human- centered artificial intelligence. Fayyad, former chief data officer at Barclays Bank, was most recently chairman and CEO of Open Insights in Silicon Valley. He has published more than 100 technical articles in the fields of data mining, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and databases. Debra A. Feakes, PhD, has been named dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Texas A&M University- San Antonio. She most recently served as dean of the Shaheen College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Indianapolis. Before that, Feakes spent 24 years as an award-winning faculty member in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Texas State University. She was the department’s associate chair from 2012 to 2018 and its interim chair for one year.

Carol A. Fierke, PhD, provost and executive vice president of Texas A&M University since 2017, has been appointed provost and executive vice president at Brandeis University. She will assume her new duties January 1. Before joining Texas A&M, Fierke was at the University of Michigan, where she served as a professor of biological chemistry and chemistry and held several leadership roles, including chair of the Chemistry Department and vice provost and dean of the Rackham Graduate School.

Marcia Friesen, PhD, has been named dean of the Price Faculty of Engineering at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg for a four-year period that commences January 1. Friesen, the first woman appointed to the post, will succeed Nariman Sepehri, PhD, acting dean since July 1. Friesen is currently an associate professor at the university and director of the faculty’s Centre for Engineering Professional Practice and Engineering Education. She is also the NSERC Chair in Design Engineering

Thomas J. Fuchs, DSc, has been appointed co-director of the Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Health at the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City. He also will serve as dean of artificial intelligence and human health and as professor of computational pathology and computer science in the Department of Pathology at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine. Fuchs was formerly director of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s digital and computational pathology center.

Tracy Futhey, MS, vice president for information technology and chief information officer at Duke University, has been reappointed. The coming five-year term will be Futhey’s fifth since she arrived at Duke in 2002. During her tenure at Duke, Futhey has built a reputation for using commercial technologies to create and disseminate digital course materials. Before joining Duke's administration, Futhey spent 17 years at Carnegie Mellon University, where she rose to the position of chief information officer.

Ronald D. Fricker Jr, PhD, senior associate dean of the College of Science at Virginia Tech, has been named interim dean, effective January 4. He succeeds Sally C. Morton, PhD, who is becoming executive vice president of the Knowledge Enterprise at Arizona State University. Fricker previously served as a professor and head of Virginia Tech’s Department of Statistics. Before joining the university in 2015, the former Navy officer taught in the Operations Research Department at the Naval Postgraduate School.

Laurel Fulkerson, PhD, has been named interim vice president for research at Florida State University in Tallahassee. She will succeed Gary K. Ostrander, PhD, who has held the position since 2011. Ostrander announced earlier this year that he would step down in January and return to the faculty of the College of Medicine. Fulkerson, who joined Florida State’s faculty in 2000, has served as associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences and, since 2018, as associate vice president for research.

Manuel Garcia-Pérez, PhD, has been appointed chair of Washington State University’s Department of Biological Systems Engineering. Garcia-Pérez, a member of the department since 2013, assumed his new duties November 1, succeeding Juming Tang, PhD, chair for four years. Garcia-Pérez, a native of Cuba, joined Washington State after earning degrees in Cuba and Canada and then completing postdoctoral fellowships in Australia and in the state of Georgia.

Glenn R. Gaudette, PhD, a biomedical engineer who pioneered the use of plants as scaffolding for heart regeneration, has been named inaugural chair of Boston College’s new Engineering Department. He starts January 1. Gaudette is now the William Smith Dean’s Professor of Biomedical Engineering and executive director of the Value Creation Initiative at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where he has taught since 2004. Gaudette, who holds four patents, is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

Jeffery C. Gibeling, PhD, professor of engineering in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the College of Engineering at the University of California-Davis, has been named interim dean of the college, effective January 1. Gibeling will take the place of Jennifer Sinclair Curtis, PhD, who announced in June that she would step down after a five-year term as dean. Gibeling joined the UC-Davis faculty in 1984 as an assistant professor and became a full professor in 1995. Dennis Gibson, PhD, has been appointed chair of the Department of Physical Sciences in the School of Science and Mathematics at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas. Gibson joined the university’s faculty in 2017 as an assistant professor of physical sciences. He is now an associate professor of chemistry. Earlier in his academic career, Gibson worked as a teaching assistant at South Dakota State University and at Northwestern State University of Louisiana.

Clay S. Gloster Jr., PhD, has been named vice provost of graduate research and dean of the Graduate College at North Carolina A&T University. He had been serving in an interim capacity for two years. Gloster joined A&T’s Department of Computer Systems and Technology as chair in 2010 and became associate dean of the College of Science and Technology two years later. In that role, he helped transform the MS in Information Technology degree program into the largest master’s program on campus.

David B. Go, PhD, the Rooney Family Collegiate Professor of Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, has been appointed chair of the College of Engineering’s Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. He started on November 1, succeeding Kenneth T. Christensen, PhD, now dean of the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Armour College of Engineering. Go, who joined Notre Dame in 2008, also holds an appointment in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

Rajni Goel, PhD, director of Howard University’s Cyber-Security Education and Research Center (CERC), has been named associate dean of academic affairs at Howard’s School of Business. Goel previously chaired the Information Systems and Supply Chain Management Department. She also was a Fulbright-Nehru Scholar in India, where she conducted research and assisted in curriculum development in cybersecurity. She began her career as a high school math teacher.

Peng Gong, PhD, has been appointed vice-president and pro-vice-chancellor for academic development at the University of Hong Kong. Gong, most recently a professor and dean of the Faculty of Science at China’s Tsinghua University, began his academic career at York University. In 1994, following a stint at the University of Calgary, he joined the faculty of the University of California-Berkeley, where he rose through the academic ranks to become a full professor in 2001.

Paul Griffin, PhD, a professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering at Penn State, will become director of the Consortium to Combat Substance Abuse (CCSA), a network of researchers, educators, and practitioners dedicated to the prevention and treatment of addiction and its spillover effects on children, families, and communities. He will assume the role in summer 2021. Griffin, an expert in health systems engineering, is already a co-funded faculty member of CCSA.

Ayanna Howard, PhD, MBA, chair of the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech, has been named dean of the College of Engineering at Ohio State University, effective March 1. She will be the first woman to occupy the post. Howard, a roboticist, is founder and board president of Zyrobotics, a Georgia Tech spinoff that develops educational tools for children with special needs. She will succeed David Williams, PhD, ScD, who announced in May that he would step down after a decade as dean.

Laurence J. Jacobs, PhD, professor and associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech, has been named interim dean of the College of Engineering. He will serve in the role until an internal search produces a permanent successor to former Dean Steven W. McLaughlin, PhD, who was recently promoted to provost. Jacobs, who joined Georgia Tech’s faculty in 1988, is a professor of civil and environmental engineering and mechanical engineering.

Peggy A. Johnson, PhD, dean of the Schreyer Honors College and a professor of civil and environmental engineering in the College of Engineering at Penn State, has announced plans to retire from the university in August. Penn State will conduct a national search for her successor as dean. Johnson, who has been a professor at Penn State since 1996, served as head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from 2006 to 2015 and became dean of the Honors College in 2017.

John L. Junkins, PhD, distinguished professor of aerospace engineering and founding director of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A&M University, has been named the university’s interim president. He will lead the institution until it identifies a permanent successor for Michael K. Young, JD, who is stepping down on December 31, a semester earlier than previously announced. Junkins joined Texas A&M’s College of Engineering in 1985 after stints at the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech. Eric W. Kaler, PhD, former president of the University of Minnesota, has been named president of Case Western Reserve University. He will start on July 1. Kaler led Minnesota from 2011 to 2019 before stepping down to join the Chemical Engineering Department, saying he had accomplished everything on his agenda. Kaler, one of the nation’s foremost experts on “complex fluids,” was previously provost at Stony Brook University and dean of the University of Delaware’s College of Engineering.

Kathleen Kavanagh, PhD, professor of mathematics and associate director of STEM Education at Clarkson University, has been named the institution’s Robert A. Plane Endowed Chair. Kavanagh, whose research involves simulation-based engineering, particularly for problems involving air and water quality, earned Clarkson’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2018. She also has received the Mathematics Association of America’s Henry Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching.

Gaurav Khanna, PhD, has been named founding director of research computing at the University of Rhode Island. Khanna is currently at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where he serves as a professor of physics and co-director of the university’s Center for Scientific Computing and Visualization Research. He also was founding director for the interdisciplinary Engineering & Applied Sciences PhD program, the largest doctoral program at UMass Dartmouth.

Hyoung K. Lee, PhD, has been named chair of the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of New Mexico. Lee was previously at the Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T), where he was a professor in the Department of Mining and Nuclear Engineering, chair of the nuclear engineering program, and director of the university’s nuclear reactor. Before joining Missouri S&T’s faculty in 2009, Lee worked in industry and academia in Korea.

David R. Legates, PhD, a professor of climatology at the University of Delaware and former director of the university’s Center for Climatic Research, has joined the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as deputy assistant secretary of commerce for observation and prediction. Legates has long questioned accepted climate science. Last year, in testimony before a U.S. House committee, Legates attributed global warming to natural variations, not human activity.

Dennis Livesay, PhD, will become dean of Michigan Technological University’s College of Computing on February 1. Livesay is currently at Wichita State University (WSU), where he is dean of the College of Engineering and a professor in both the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Livesay joined WSU in 2016 as dean of the Graduate School and associate vice president of research and technology transfer. He became dean of the College of Engineering in January 2019.

Steven Lupien, MA, has been named director of the University of Wyoming’s new Center for Blockchain and Digital Innovation. Blockchain, or distributed ledger technology, is essentially a digital spreadsheet on which transactions are validated and recorded. Although the technology is best known for supporting cryptocurrencies and digital assets, it can be used in other areas, including supply-chain management and payment processing. Lupien is an adjunct professor of accounting and finance.

Asad M. Madni, PhD, a distinguished adjunct professor of electrical and computer engineering at UCLA’s Samueli School of Engineering, has been elected as an International Fellow of the United Kingdom’s Royal Academy of Engineering in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the profession. Madni, who joined UCLA in 2011, developed and commercialized sensors, systems, and instrumentation for the automotive, industrial, and aerospace industries.

Seth Marder, PhD, has been named director of the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, run jointly by the University of Colorado Boulder and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Marder, who starts in July, will have joint appointments in the College of Engineering and Applied Science and in the Department of Chemistry. Marder is currently the Georgia Power Chair of Energy Efficiency and a professor of materials science and engineering at Georgia Tech.

Steven W. McLaughlin, PhD, has begun his tenure as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Georgia Tech. He has served Georgia Tech in various leadership roles since 1996, most recently as dean and Southern Company Chair of the College of Engineering. McLaughlin formerly was the Steve W. Chaddick School Chair in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Currently, he is also co-chair of Georgia Tech’s strategic-plan steering committee. Patricia Menchaca, MS, is dean of the Mathematics, Science, and Engineering Division at Palomar College in San Marcos, California. Menchaca, a first-generation college student, attended Palomar in the late 1990s before transferring to the University of California-Riverside. Prior to joining Palomar’s faculty this past summer, Menchaca spent eight years at Crafton Hills College, where she was the STEM Coordinator. Menchaca’s academic background is in soil and water science.

Shaily Menon, PhD, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, has been named dean of its College of Arts and Sciences at Connecticut’s University of New Haven. She will assume her new responsibilities no later than July 1. At Saint Joseph’s, Menon established programs in artificial intelligence, computational engineering, applied physics, and cybersecurity. She also helped launch interdisciplinary programs in geospatial analysis, digital humanities, and data science.

Martin P. Mintchev, PhD, has been named director of the Engineering Science Program and professor of engineering at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas. Mintchev previously spent 23 years as a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the University of Calgary’s Schulich School of Engineering. Mintchev is the author of more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and the holder of more than 10 patents, eight of which are licensed by major international companies.

Sally C. Morton, PhD, dean of the College of Science at Virginia Tech, has been named executive vice president of Arizona State University’s Knowledge Enterprise, which encompasses units devoted to research, technology transfer, and international development. She starts on February 1. Before joining Virginia Tech in 2016, Morton was chair of biostatistics at the University of Pittsburgh, vice president for statistics and epidemiology at RTI International, and head of the RAND Corporation Statistics Group.

Richard M. Murray, PhD, the Thomas E. and Doris Everhart Professor of Control and Dynamical Systems and Bioengineering at Caltech, has begun his tenure as the William K. Bowes Jr. Leadership Chair of the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering. Murray, who joined Caltech’s faculty in 1991, chaired the Division of Engineering and Applied Science from 2000 until 2005 and directed Caltech’s Information Science and Technology initiative from 2006 until 2009.

Misheck Mwaba, PhD, vice-president of academics at Calgary’s Bow Valley College since 2017, has been appointed president of the institution. Mwaba, a mechanical engineer with a doctorate in energy technology, has worked with Atomic Energy of Canada Limited to improve the safety of its nuclear reactors, and his research has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals. He sits on the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, which funds scientific innovation.

Kim LaScola Needy, PhD, dean of the Graduate School and International Education at the University of Arkansas, has been given a one-year appointment as dean of the College of Engineering. Needy replaces John English, PhD, now vice chancellor for research and innovation. Needy, the first woman to lead the College of Engineering, headed the college’s Department of Industrial Engineering before assuming her post in graduate and international education.

Stephanie Luster-Teasley, PhD, a professor and chair of the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at North Carolina A&T University, has been named interim vice provost for undergraduate education. Luster-Teasley, who earned a BS in chemical engineering from A&T in 1996, returned as a faculty member in 2004, after working in industry as an environmental engineer. An authority on environmental remediation, she holds patents in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain.

Carman Neustaedter, PhD, a professor and director of the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, has been named dean of the institution’s Faculty of Communication, Art, and Technology, effective December 1. Neustaedter, who joined the university’s faculty in 2010, is widely recognized for his research on human-computer interaction. Before entering academia, Neustaedter was a research scientist at Kodak Research Labs.

Alan Palkowitz, PhD, a veteran researcher and faculty member at the Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM), has been named president and chief executive officer of the Indiana Biosciences Research Institute (IBRI), an industry-inspired applied research center. Although Palkowitz will spend 80 percent of his time at IBRI, he will remain head of the IUSM-Purdue TaRget Enablement to Accelerate Therapy Development for Alzheimer’s Disease (TREAT-AD) Center. Christopher A. Pearson, PhD, a physics professor at the University of Michigan-Flint, has been named inaugural dean of the school’s College of Innovation and Technology (CIT). He started on November 1. Pearson, who joined UM-Flint in 1998, had been associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences since 2015. The CIT, which is scheduled to open in fall 2021, is meant to fill the gap between vocational technical training and science-based bachelor’s degree programs in engineering and computer science.

Jon A. Preston, PhD, dean of the College of Computing and Software Engineering and founding director of the Center for Applied Gaming and Media Arts at Georgia’s Kennesaw State University (KSU), has been named provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of West Georgia, effective December 1. Preston has served within the University System of Georgia for 26 years. Before joining KSU, Preston served on the faculty at Clayton State University and Georgia Tech.

Stephanie L. Reel, MBA, has been appointed interim chief information officer at Washington University in St. Louis. Reel was most recently chief information officer for all divisions of the Johns Hopkins University and Health System. At Johns Hopkins, she was also an assistant professor of health sciences informatics. Reel will serve in the role while the university conducts a search for a permanent successor for Chris Kielt, who stepped down last month. That search is to begin in 2021.

Mark Rieger, PhD, has been named provost and executive vice president at Florida Gulf Coast University. He will start in January, replacing Jim Llorens, PhD. Rieger has spent the past eight years as dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Delaware, where he also directs the Agricultural Experiment Station. Before that, Rieger served as associate dean and professor in the University of Florida’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.

Luis Rocha, PhD, professor of informatics and director of the NSF-NRT Interdisciplinary Program in Complex Networks and Systems at Indiana University’s Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, has been named the inaugural George Klir Professor in Systems Science in the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science at Binghamton University. He starts next fall. Before joining Indiana’s faculty in 2004, Rocha worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Michelle Sabick, PhD, has been appointed dean of the Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Denver. She will assume her new responsibilities on March 1. Sabick is now dean of the Parks College of Engineering, Aviation, and Technology at Saint Louis University. Before joining Saint Louis University in 2014, Sabick chaired the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Boise State University. She is a past president of the American Society of Biomechanics.

Max Shen, PhD, Chancellor’s Professor and chair of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research and professor of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California-Berkeley, has been named vice-president and pro-vice-chancellor for research at the University of Hong Kong. Shen is also director of the Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute and honorary chair of the Department of Industrial Engineering at China’s Tsinghua University.

Russell S. Schwartz, PhD, is several months into his tenure as head of the Computational Biology Department at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science. Schwartz, who assumed his new responsibilities this past summer, is a professor in both the Computational Biology Department and the Department of Biological Sciences. He succeeds Robert F. Murphy, PhD, who founded the Computational Biology Department and stepped down after 13 years as its leader.

Kelli Sisler, MBA, has been named director of analytics, institutional research, and assessment at Garrett College in McHenry, Maryland. Sisler, who joined Garrett as an adjunct faculty member in computer science, has spent the past five years as institutional research and effectiveness coordinator. She also served the college as a contract employee in cybersecurity. Sisler, who is currently pursing a doctorate, has contributed to a wide range of data-driven initiatives at Garrett, including the college’s 2021-25 strategic plan.

Raghupathy “Siva” Sivakumar, PhD, the Wayne J. Holman Chair in the Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been named Georgia Tech’s inaugural interim chief commercialization officer. Sivakumar, who will oversee all of the institution’s technology-transfer activities, said his goal is to make to Georgia Tech the “No. 1 startup campus in the country.” Sivakumar, who joined Georgia Tech in 2000 as an assistant professor, has helped found three technology companies. Brian K. Smith, PhD, has been named the Honorable David S. Nelson Professional Chair and associate dean for research at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education and Human Development. He previously served as senior associate dean of academic affairs at Drexel University’s College of Computing & Informatics, Smith, a professor of information science and education, specializes in the design of computer-based learning environments and human-computer interaction.

Lyle C. Smith III, PhD, has been named dean of engineering at Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee, effective January 1. Smith has been a member of Bryan College’s faculty since 2016, most recently serving as chair of both the Department of Engineering and the Department of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. Bryan officials said Smith was a “key architect” of the curriculum now in place at the college’s Vogel School of Engineering, which opened its doors to students two years ago.

Mark Somerville, PhD, has been named provost and dean of faculty at Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Massachusetts. Somerville, who joined Olin in 2001 as an assistant professor of electrical engineering and physics, had been serving in an interim capacity. During his tenure at Olin, Somerville played a key role in establishing Olin’s Summer Institute, in redesigning the college’s promotion process, and in forging the school's partnership with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Ben Stuart, PhD, interim dean of the Frank Batten College of Engineering and Technology at Old Dominion University since June 2019, will serve in the position on a permanent basis. The appointment took effect October 25. Stuart, the author or co-author of 50 peer-reviewed publications, is an authority on algal biofuels. The holder of three patents, he also serves as chief technology officer for ECO2Capture, a startup company focused on algae cultivation and air-pollution control.

Mike Staley, MEngr, is dean of the College of Engineering Technology at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan. Staley previously spent more than 15 years at Seminole State College in Sanford, Florida, where he held various leadership positions, including associate vice president and dean of the School of Engineering, Design, and Construction. Before entering academia, Staley was a structural engineer and project manager with Jacobs Engineering in Orlando.

Grace Wang, PhD, senior vice chancellor for research and economic development at the State University of New York and interim president of SUNY Polytechnic Institute, has been named Ohio State University’s inaugural executive vice president for research, innovation, and knowledge enterprise, effective December 1. Wang will oversee a number of formerly independent units, including the Office of Research, the Corporate Engagement Office, and the Keenan Center for Entrepreneurship.

Linwei Wang, PhD, a professor in the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences and head of the college’s Computational Biomedicine Laboratory, has been named director of RIT’s Personalized Healthcare Technology initiative. Wang succeeds David Borkholder, PhD, an engineering professor who is taking a leave of absence to serve as head of research and development for the startup Heart Health Intelligence.

Mark Weichold, PhD, senior associate dean for academic affairs of the Texas A&M University College of Engineering and executive director of the college’s Halliburton Engineering Global Program, has been named interim provost of the university, effective January 1. The three-time Texas A&M graduate is the Halliburton Engineering Global Program Professor, a Regents Professor, and a professor of electrical and computer engineering. He formerly served as dean and CEO of Texas A&M’s branch campus in Doha, Qatar.

Eric P. Xing, PhD, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, has been named president of Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, which bills itself as the world’s first graduate-level, research-based AI university. Located in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, the school is scheduled to open in January. Xing, widely recognized as an expert in machine learning, is founder, CEO, and chief scientist of Petuum Inc., a 2018 World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer.

Winnie Ye, PhD, a professor in the Department of Electronics at Carleton University in Ottawa, has been appointed chair of Women in Engineering for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Canada for 2021. Ye joined Carleton’s faculty in 2009, after serving as a postdoctoral fellow at the MIT and Harvard University. Her expertise is in silicon photonics and its applications in telecommunications, data communication, biophotonics, and renewable energy. Last word

Engineering and yoga are interconnected as disciplines, because we can engineer our body and mind to function for our benefit. Yoga helps to connect our minds to our bodies, “which results in better performance in our daily lives. Yoga is engineering a connected system within our bodies, so we can sense when something is not right and fix it.”

— Anna Balbach, a mechanical engineering student at the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering (and a certified yoga instructor), narrating a six- minute yoga video that the school distributed online in the hope that “we can all find peace during a stressful time”

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