Purdue News
Purdue News
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April 15, 2004 Purdue appoints top engineer, educator as vice president for researchWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Fawwaz T. Ulaby (Fa-WAZ Oo-lah-bee), vice president for research at the University of Michigan, has been named vice president for research and University Distinguished Professor at Purdue University, effective by Sept. 1, pending approval by the Purdue Board of Trustees.
He will succeed Charles O. Rutledge, currently Purdue's interim vice provost for research, who will continue in his other assignment as executive director of Discovery Park. Ulaby is the R. Jamison and Betty Williams Professor of Engineering and a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan, where he has been vice president for research since January 1999. "Dr. Ulaby is a world-class researcher, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, an award-winning teacher and an administrator with impressive credentials," said Purdue Provost Sally Mason. "He is coming at a time when we are expanding our interdisciplinary research programs on a scale never before seen at Purdue, and he will guide us in these historic efforts." As vice president for research at Purdue, Ulaby will be responsible for more than $335 million (for fiscal year 2002-03, the latest year for which figures are available) in projects and programs funded by federal grants, industry, foundations, state and local governments and private sources. Ulaby will also have direct responsibility for research coming out of Discovery Park, a focal point for future growth at Purdue. Discovery Park will house the Birck Nanotechnology Center, the Bindley Bioscience Center, an e-Enterprise Center, the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, a Discovery Learning Center and a biomedical engineering building. "Purdue's commitments in research, teaching and entrepreneurship have been attracting national and international attention," Ulaby said. "I'm excited about playing a key leadership role." In addition to his administrative position, he will hold a University Distinguished Professorship at Purdue. "I feel strongly about the importance of teaching and mentorship," said Ulaby, recipient of numerous teaching awards and the author of an undergraduate textbook on electromagnetics that is in use at about 80 universities across the country. From 1988-99, Ulaby was director of the University of Michigan-based NASA Center for Space Terahertz Technology, which comprised a large multidisciplinary group of faculty and graduate students involved in the development of microelectronic devices that operate at terahertz frequencies, a wavelength range between the infrared and microwave bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. Ulaby earned a doctoral degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1968 and a bachelor's degree in physics in 1964 from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. Before joining the University of Michigan in 1984, he was the J. L. Constant Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Kansas, in Lawrence, where he also directed its Remote Sensing Laboratory. His research experience has focused on satellite remote sensing, radar systems and the development of microwave sensors for automotive and environmental applications. He has received numerous honors, distinctions and awards, including: the NASA Group Achievement Award for the Shuttle Imaging Radar Science Team, the University of Michigan Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award, election to the National Academy of Engineering; the Michigan Regents Medal for Meritorious Service, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Millennium Medal for Outstanding Achievements and Contributions, the IEEE Electromagnetics Award and the joint NASA/Department of the Interior 2001 Pecora Award. He has served in editorial capacities for several research publications, including executive editor of the IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing and editor-in-chief of IEEE's PROCEEDINGS, a position he currently holds. Writer: Emil Venere, (765) 494-4709, venere@purdue.edu Sources: Sally Mason, (765) 494-9709, sfmason@purdue.edu Fawwaz Ulaby: (734) 936-2680, ulaby@umich.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu Related Web sites:
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