Engineering dean to leave at the end of school year

8/30/16 10:47pm

Ned Thomas will step down as Dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering at the end of the school year and return to teaching as a full-time faculty member, according to an email Provost Marie Lynn Miranda sent to faculty last week.

Miranda said the search for a replacement to Thomas, who has served since 2011, will begin soon. Thomas declined to comment on the factors leading to his transition out of the role.

“Thanks to you students for helping to create an extraordinary culture of high energy in our can-do, hands-on, highly collaborative engineering community,” Thomas said in an engineering newsletter. “All of these things occurred during historic, unprecedented growth of undergraduate engineering majors with nearly 40 percent of all undergrads now majoring in engineering.”

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In his message, Thomas said three of the four largest majors at Rice are currently computer science, mechanical engineering and chemical and biomolecular engineering. Since Thomas’s arrival, the number of graduating engineers has increased by more than 40 percent for both undergraduates and the department as a whole, according to Office of Institutional Research data. Thomas also noted that more than 35 percent of Rice engineers are now women.

In the message to the engineering school, Thomas mentioned several accomplishments: the creation of the Engineering Advisory Board and departmental review committees, the founding of the Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment Center and the creation of awards to recognize research and teaching excellence.

Thomas also said he is proud of recruiting talented faculty and staff, as well as improvements to the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership and Owlspark entrepreneurship program. At the start of his term, in a 2011 interview with the Thresher, Thomas had described student entrepreneurship, leadership and innovation as key to his vision.

Thomas, who served as head of the materials science department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before coming to Rice, will teach materials science full-time next year.

Thomas said he would continue to work on initiatives as dean this year, including hiring more faculty, renovating labs and raising funds for an Oshman Engineering and Design Kitchen garage.

“I have ten more months at the helm and I don’t plan to spend them getting ready for my post-dean life,” Thomas said. “Let’s crank it up a few notches and do a lot of good for the School of Engineering and Rice.”

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