Interim dean of engineering college named

KALAMAZOO—Dr. Edmund Tsang, associate dean of Western Michigan University's College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, has been named interim dean of the college, effective July 1.

Tsang will lead the college while a national search is underway to find a new dean to replace Dr. Anthony Vizzini, who is leaving WMU at the end of June to become the vice president for academic affairs at Wichita State University. A campuswide search committee is being led by Dr. Earlie Washington, dean of the College of Health and Human Services.

Edmund Tsang

A professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Tsang has served as associate dean for undergraduate programs and assessment in the engineering college since 2001. He came to WMU from the University of South Alabama, where he had been a faculty member in mechanical engineering since 1980. Prior to that, he was a post-doctoral research fellow at Freie University in Berlin and a faculty member at the University of Nebraska.

Tsang also has been a visiting scientist at Ames Laboratory at Iowa State and a visiting scholar at both the Center for Defense Information in Washington, D.C., and the American Society for Engineering Education. During his career, he has been active in curriculum development and laboratory design as well as in implementing service learning initiatives in engineering education and student recruitment efforts, particularly in the area of underrepresented minorities. Tsang has received more than $6 million from state and federal agencies to support his work in undergraduate teaching and learning.

At WMU, Tsang has been instrumental in developing first-year engineering seminars and creating a learning community to improve retention and graduation rates among engineering students. He also has helped run a statewide effort—the Lewis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation—designed to increase graduation rates among minorities in the STEM disciplines—science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Tsang earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska in 1973 and a doctoral degree from Iowa Sate University in 1977.