President Appoints EMPAC Steering Committee

EMPAC Director Johannes Goebel Photo by Mark McCarty

During the period preceding and immediately following the opening of the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) in 2008, President Jackson had appointed a Steering Committee for EMPAC to provide ongoing guidance in the development and implementation of the artistic, academic, research, and student life-related programs of the center.

As EMPAC continues to establish itself as a leading performing arts and academic research organization, the president has reconstituted the Steering Committee to provide guidance and ensure the further development of programs that will capitalize on the potential of EMPAC to make even greater contributions to the arts, research, teaching and overall living/learning environment at Rensselaer.

The group will work closely with EMPAC Director Johannes Goebel and his staff, providing continuous review and strategic guidance of EMPAC and its programs, building on the strong foundation that has been established over the last three years. John Kolb, vice president for information services and technology and chief information officer, has been named co-chair of the committee, together with Johannes Goebel, director of EMPAC.

The committee membership is as follows: John Kolb, vice president for information services and technology and chief information officer, co-chair; Johannes Goebel, director, EMPAC, co-chair; Christopher Carothers, director of the Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations; Jonathan Dordick, vice president for research; Prabhat Hajela, provost; Laurie Leshin, dean of the School of Science; David Rosowsky, dean of the School of Engineering; Claude Rounds, vice president for administration; Timothy Sams, vice president for student life; Mary Simoni, dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences; and William Walker, vice president for strategic communications and external relations.

	The group will work closely with EMPAC Director Johannes Goebel and his staff, providing continuous review and strategicguidance of EMPAC and its programs. Photo by Peter Aaron/Esto

The Steering Committee is charged with ensuring that a robust research agenda is developed for EMPAC, that its artistic programs are world-class, and that EMPAC programs allow undergraduate and graduate students to engage in unique opportunities developed by staff.

“It is timely to remind ourselves,” said President Jackson in a memo announcing the committee, “that we have in place a network of platforms unparalleled in higher education—the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies that provides outstanding scientific research facilities, the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center that provides unique programming and research opportunities at the intersection of media, the arts, the sciences, and technology, and the Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations that provides a world-class standard of supercomputing capacity, enabling a level of research that is the envy of universities everywhere. The Steering Committee will work to see that EMPAC is optimally linked into this network, while being unique in its own right.”