After a search that started at the beginning of the year, the search committee for the new provost at Tech has announced two candidates. While the committee has come up with two names thus far, they have left open the possibility of more nominees being announced in the coming weeks.
The provost has several primary tasks. The position is considered the chief academic officer at the institute. Several vice provosts and all the deans of the colleges report to the provost directly. The provost also deals with the hiring and retention of faculty as well as the budgeting process.
The committee was formed in early January according to the current timeline released by the Office of the Provost. In the listing for the job, they stated that they were accepting applications for the position up to March 31. The search comittee hopes to announce at least one more name in the coming weeks with the candidate coming on to campus to make a public presentation. A final decision about the position should be decided by late June.
The current provost, Dr. Gary Schuster, announced that he was stepping down in Oct. 2009. He had been at the position since Aug. 2006. He is also currently a professor in the College of Science and will return to the faculty after his replacement is found and put in place.
The search committee is made up of various members of the Tech community. While it is primarily faculty and administrators who make up the group, it does include one student: Alina Staskevicius, B.S. ISyE ‘10. The committee chair is Steve Salbu, the current dean of the College of Management. There are 15 other members of the committee.
Dr. Gary May, the current chair of the School of ECE at Tech, was the first candidate to be announced by the institute and the first to give a public presentation on campus.
May graduated with a B.S. in electrical engineering in 1985 from Tech. He then earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degree from U. of California Berkeley in computer science and electrical engineering in 1988 and 1991, respectively. His focus was in semiconductors devices and integrated circuits.
After completing his Ph.D., he returned to Tech where he has worked since, spending all his career in academia. He has held a position at this school for nearly 20 years. Before serving as ECE school chair, he acted as Executive Assistant to the President for almost three years.
Dr. Susan Hackwood was the second candidate announced and also the second to give a public presentation. She is currently the Executive Director of the California Council on Science and Technology and a professor of Electrical Engineering at the U. of California, Riverside.
She received her Ph.D. in Solid State Ionics in 1979 from DeMontfort University in the United Kingdom.
She has held various jobs in industry as well as academia. She took a job at Bell Labs right after receiving her Ph.D.
In 1984, she became a professor of ECE at U. of California, Santa Barbara. In 1990, she became the founding dean of the College of Engineering at Riverside. She began her current job in 1995.