Appointment of Dean of SEAS
April 22, 2009
Dear fellow members of the Columbia community:
I am extremely pleased to announce the appointment of Professor
Feniosky Peña-Mora as the new Dean of the Fu Foundation School of Engineering
and Applied Science, effective July 15, 2009. Professor Peña-Mora has earned an
international reputation for outstanding scholarship, teaching, research,
engineering, and leadership in managing major university engineering programs
at both MIT and the University
of Illinois, where he has
also served as Associate Provost.
Professor Peña-Mora comes to Columbia
after six years at Illinois, where he is the Edward
William and Jane Marr Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, a Center Affiliate at the National Center
for Supercomputing Applications and a Faculty Affiliate at the Beckman
Institute. He earned a Master of Science (MS) degree in Civil Engineering and a
Doctor of Science (ScD) in Civil Engineering Systems from MIT. Before joining
the University of
Illinois in 2003, Professor
Peña-Mora worked at MIT as Assistant Professor and Associate Professor of
information technology and project management in the Civil and Environmental
Engineering Department. He has also served as a visiting professor at Loughborough University
in Great Britain and at the
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland.
Professor Peña-Mora's research interests include information
technology support for collaboration in preparedness, response, and recovery
during disasters involving critical physical infrastructures, such as the 9/11
terrorist attack and Hurricane Katrina. He has also worked on problems of management
of large-scale civil engineering systems.
Professor Peña-Mora is the author of more than one-hundred
publications in refereed journals, conference proceedings, book chapters, and
textbooks on computer-supported design, computer-supported engineering design
and construction, as well as project control and management of large-scale
engineering systems. His publication, "Design Rationale for Computer Supported
Conflict Mitigation," received the 1995 award for best paper published in the
American Society Civil Engineers' (ASCE) Journal of Computing in Civil
Engineering. He is also the author of an influential textbook, Introduction
to Construction Dispute Resolution (2002).
Professor Peña-Mora is the holder of the 1999 National
Science Foundation CAREER Award and the White House Presidential Early Career
Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). More recently, he has won the 2007
ASCE Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize. In 2008, he was
recognized with the ASCE Computing in Civil Engineering Award for outstanding
achievement and contribution in the use of computers in the practice of civil
engineering.
Professor Peña-Mora also has extensive practical experience in
the fields of engineering and applied science. He is a professional engineer
registered in the Dominican
Republic and has been a key figure in a
variety of international projects. He has founded high-tech startup and
consulting companies and has worked with both the construction industry and
governments in various countries, including Argentina,
Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Japan.
Columbia is fortunate to welcome such a remarkable new
engineering dean at a time when the school is becoming ever more central to the
University's mission - from its interdisciplinary work with our medical center
in the life sciences and the Earth Institute in climate science to its
pioneering service-learning curriculum that is a national model for civic
engagement between university and community.
I want to extend my thanks to Interim Dean Jerry Navratil
for his effective leadership at SEAS these past two academic years. I would
also like to thank Provost Alan Brinkley and all the students, faculty, staff,
and alumni members of the search committee for their hard work and enthusiastic
recommendation of Professor Peña-Mora for this vital leadership role at Columbia. The success of
their efforts is obvious. For the present, please join me in welcoming Feniosky
Peña-Mora and his family to the Columbia
community.
Sincerely,
Lee C. Bollinger
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