One of the great successes of the strategic Rensselaer Plan over the past six years is the growth in the quality and number of our faculty—171 new hires, with 81 of those in newly created positions, toward a goal of 100 new faculty.
One new professor, semiconductor pioneer Fred Schubert, who leads the research Constellation in Future Chips, said, “The Rensselaer Plan is the reason I came here: the principles it laid out, and the vision, were very compelling to me. The emphasis on creating and maintaining Rensselaer as a world-class institution was very attractive.”
The increase in faculty benefits our students, lowering the faculty/student ratio from 17:1 to 15:1 (and for undergraduate students, that ratio is down to nearly 11:1). Schubert works directly with 10 graduate student researchers in his lab. “The students bring to the research a mixture of youth and experience,” he says. “They are really the creative ones.”
Recently, the Future Chips Constellation received a $1.8 million, three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop green LEDs, needed to produce efficient white LEDs. Christian Wetzel is co-PI with Fred Shubert on the grant.
Give Now Online or Contact Us to make your gift to support the Faculty.