Engineering dean search committee named

Holden Thorp, PhD, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at Washington University in St. Louis, has appointed an 11-member committee to identify candidates for the position of dean of the School of Engineering & Applied Science.

Ralph S. Quatrano, PhD, announced last week that he will step down as dean at the end of the academic year, June 30, 2015.

After a yearlong sabbatical beginning in July 2015, Quatrano will resume his position as the Spencer T. Olin Professor of Biology in Arts & Sciences.

Mahendra Gupta, PhD, dean of the Olin Business School and the Geraldine J. and Robert L. Virgil Professor of Accounting and Management, will chair the engineering dean search committee.

Thorp and the search committee will work to have a new engineering dean in place by July 1, 2015.

“I am confident that this search committee, under Dean Gupta’s leadership, will identify and recruit a dean who will further improve our already strong School of Engineering,” Thorp said. “I believe there is no better opportunity in higher education to lead an engineering school with such talented faculty, capable students and potential for enormous growth.”

The committee

In addition to chair Gupta, committee members are:

  • Martin Arthur, PhD, the Newton R. and Sarah Louisa Glasgow Wilson Professor of Engineering in the Department of Electrical & Systems Engineering;
  • Stephen F. Brauer, vice chair and life trustee of Washington University’s Board of Trustees, chair of the National Council for the School of Engineering & Applied Science, and chairman of Hunter Engineering Co.;
  • Dedric Carter, PhD, associate provost and associate vice chancellor for innovation and entrepreneurship and professor of practice in the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering;
  • Kathy Flores, PhD, professor and associate chair for materials science in the Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science;
  • Daniel E. Giammar, PhD, the Harold D. Jolley Career Development Associate Professor in the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering;
  • Roch Guerin, PhD, the Harold B. and Adelaide G. Welge Professor of Computer Science and chair of the Department of Computer Science & Engineering;
  • Grace Kuo, a senior majoring in electrical engineering in the School of Engineering;
  • John F. McDonnell, life trustee of the Board of Trustees and retired chairman of the board of McDonnell Douglas Corp.;
  • Jessica Ray, a doctoral student in the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering; and
  • Shelly Sakiyama-Elbert, PhD, professor and associate chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering.