Interim President Gary Schuster announced last week the launch of a search committee for the new dean of the College of Computing (CoC).
The previous dean, Richard DeMillo, stepped down from the post on June 13 of this year; however, he remains as a distinguished professor in the CoC.
The 16-member committee was put together at this time so that the new dean they select would be chosen after a replacement for former Institute President Wayne Clough is found. The committee includes professors from all over the CoC, including professors from the School of Computer Science, the School of Interactive Computing and the School of Computational Science and Engineering.
Also on the committee is Thomas Noonan, the former chairman, president and CEO of IBM Internet Security Systems and chair of the CoC Advisory board.
“The thinking behind putting the committee together was to have a good mix of people of all kinds of social rank, academic rank and diversity in their intellectual interests,” said Gary May, chair of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and chair of the search committee. “We hope to have a balance of contributions of people from the three different schools in the college.”
According to May, the committee’s role is to take into account feedback and suggestions from a variety of sources, including professors, Tech administrators and corporate partners, among others in the selection process.
May also suggested that if Tech’s new president was selected in time, their input would also be more than welcomed by the search committee.
The committee has hired the employment search firm Russell Reynolds to take charge of the application review process to determine likely candidates for the job.
While the search committee will traditionally look at candidates with strong and diverse academic backgrounds and experience, according to May, the committee is not going to rule out a candidate just because they come from an industry or commercial-related background.
However, May did add that the committee strongly suggests that candidates have some academic or university experience. “We’re still in the process of collecting [the information],” May said. “We just had our first meeting last week. Then [we have] our first town hall meeting with the [CoC] faculty and staff next Tuesday.”
With the CoC search committee waiting to select the new dean after Tech’s president is announced, the committee’s hope is to have the new CoC dean selected and announced by late spring or early summer. By the fall semester, the new dean will assume his or her new position. Since Demillo reigned as dean, Jim Foley, the Stephen Fleming chair in Telecommunications, has been serving as interim dean.