WMU HOME > ABOUT WMU > WMU NEWS
Engineering dean candidates visit campus
Oct. 19, 2004
KALAMAZOO--Three finalists for the position of dean of Western Michigan University's College of Engineering and Applied Sciences will visit the campus in the coming weeks to meet with members of the University community and give public presentations.
The three final candidates will each come to campus for two-day visits. During their stay, they each will make a public presentation in Room D-109 of the engineering building on the Parkview Campus. Each public presentation will be followed by an informal reception in the Student Study Area designated as F-124. Candidates also will meet with groups of faculty and staff members.
The candidates selected will visit in the following order.
Dr. Priscilla P. Nelson, senior advisor for the Directorate for Engineering at the National Science Foundation, will be on campus Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 25-26. Her public presentation will be at 2 p.m. Monday, Oct. 25.
Dr. Leo Hanifin, dean of the College of Engineering and Science and the Chrysler Professor of Engineering at the University of Detroit Mercy, will be on campus Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov. 2-3. His public presentation will be at 3:15 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 2.
Dr. Timothy J. Greene, assistant vice president of research and academic affairs at the University of Alabama, will visit the campus Thursday and Friday, Nov. 4-5. His public presentation is set for 3:15 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 4.
The presentations of all three candidates are open to the public. Copies of all three candidates' vitae are available on the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences Web site at <www.wmich.edu/engineer>.
The three finalists were selected following a nationwide search by a campuswide search committee headed by Dr. Janet Pisaneschi, dean of WMU's College of Health and Human Services. The successful candidate will replace current engineering dean, Dr. Michael Atkins, who has announced his intention to retire. He has served as dean since 2002.
Dr. Timothy J. Greene, assistant vice president of research and academic affairs at the University of Alabama, took his current position in July after completing a five-year term as dean of the College of Engineering at Alabama, where he also is a professor of industrial engineering. Prior to that, he had served since 1995 as associate dean for research in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology and professor of industrial engineering and management at Oklahoma State University. He also served as head of the School of Industrial Engineering and Management at OSU from 1991 to 1996. His background also includes faculty positions at Virginia Tech and Purdue University and a private-sector engineering job with Eaton Corp. Green earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from Purdue in 1975, 1977 and 1980, respectively.
Dr. Leo Hanifin, dean of the College of Engineering and Science and the Chrysler Professor of Engineering at the University of Detroit Mercy, has been dean of Detroit Mercy's engineering college since 1991. He also was director, from 1993 to 1996, of the Greenfield Coalition, an NSF-funded education coalition, and from 1980 to 1991, he was director of the Center for Manufacturing Productivity and Technology Transfer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In addition, he served two year stints as co-principal investigator of the Northeast Manufacturing Technology Center and co-director of the New York State Center for Advanced Technology in Automation and Robotics at RPI. His industrial experience includes posts with Chrysler Corp., Hughes Aircraft Co. and Aero-Jet General Corp. Hanifin earned bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Detroit in 1969, 1972 and 1975 respectively. He was a Hughes Fellow in the University of California-Los Angeles from 1969 to 1971 and completed Harvard University's Academic Leadership Program in 1993.
Dr. Priscilla P. Nelson, senior advisor for the Directorate for Engineering at the National Science Foundation, has been at the NSF since 1994, when she first accepted a two-year appointment as a program director for geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering. She went on to add the role of senior engineering coordinator, then became director of the NSF Civil and Mechanical Systems Division before being named to her current position in 2003. Prior to beginning her federal service, she was a civil engineering professor and had served on the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin since 1983. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Rochester in 1970, a master's degree from Indiana University in 1976, a second master's degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1979 and a doctoral degree from Cornell University in 1983.
Media contact: Cheryl Roland, 269 387-8400, cheryl.roland@wmich.edu
WMU News
Office of University Relations
Western Michigan University
1903 W Michigan Ave
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5433 USA
269 387-8400
www.wmich.edu/wmu/news