Four candidates for dean of the VCU School of Engineering to visit campus

By Anne Buckley

A search for the next dean of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Engineering has been narrowed to four candidates from across the United States, and each will visit campus to meet with faculty, staff and students this month. 

The candidates all have held leadership roles at major U.S. universities and were selected from more than 75 applicants in a highly competitive national search.

Dean Robert J. Mattauch, Ph.D., a founding faculty member, is retiring from the dean’s position effective June 30 and will remain on faculty. He initially was chair of the electrical engineering department and was named dean in 1999.

The candidates, in order of their visits, are:

• Harvey Stenger, Ph.D., who will visit March 8 and 9, will speak at 4 p.m. on March 8 in room 106 in the VCU School of Engineering, 601 W. Main St. Stenger is a professor of chemical engineering and the former dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science at Lehigh University.

• Russell Jamison, Ph.D., who will visit March 20 and 21, will speak at 4 p.m. on March 20, also in room 106 in the School of Engineering. Jamison is a professor of bioengineering and materials science and engineering and former director of the Technology and Management Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

• Seshu Desu, Ph.D., who will visit March 22 and 23, will speak at 4 p.m. on March 22, also in room 106 in the School of Engineering. Desu is a distinguished professor and head of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

• Ergodan Gulari, Ph.D., who will visit March 27 and 28, will speak at 4 p.m. on March 27, also in room 106 in the School of Engineering. Gulari is professor of chemical engineering and the former senior associate dean in the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan.

Each candidate will make a presentation to the VCU community about engineering in the 21st century, and each session will be followed by a question-and-answer period.

Established in 1996, the VCU School of Engineering was formulated to respond to the needs of the international engineering community, business and the manufacturing sectors of both Virginia and the United States. It has departments of biomedical engineering, chemical and life science engineering, computer science engineering, electrical and computer engineering and mechanical engineering.