Rensselaer Magazine: Fall 2005: Rensselaer Milestones

FOCUSON:

Alan Cramb: Dean of Engineering



	Photo by Mark McCarty

Alan Cramb, the new dean of engineering, is a man of steel. Not as the bulging-muscled Superman who could bend the metal with his bare hands, but as a leader and technological pioneer in the iron and steel industry for more than two decades.

Cramb, whose career spans industry and academia, is a distinguished researcher who specializes in the development of steel processes that are environmentally friendly — what he calls “eco-processing” — in the effort to reduce energy consumption worldwide.

“Obviously, there is a natural focus on the development of new materials due to their great potential. But there are tremendous advances that can be made by further development of materials currently used by humanity. The two most widely used manufactured materials are steel and concrete,” he says. “If we can simplify the processing of those basic building materials, then we can make a major change in the total energy used by the world and at the same time reduce CO2 produced by these processes.”

As the new dean of Rensselaer’s School of Engineering, his immediate goal is to increase the number of faculty members to 175 from 142.

“The School of Engineering is among the best in the country, and this is reflected in national college guide rankings,” Cramb adds. “For us to remain competitive and a top engineering school, it is essential to hire outstanding faculty at both the junior and senior levels.”

The 2006 U.S.News & World Report guide to “America’s Best Undergraduate Schools,” published in August, ranked Rensselaer’s undergraduate engineering program 18th in the nation. Four of the undergraduate engineering specialty programs are also ranked in the top 20: materials engineering (15th), electrical engineering (16th), biomedical engineering (19th), and mechanical engineering (19th); computer and systems engineering is ranked 21st.

Under his leadership, two major areas the school will continue to bolster are biotechnology and information technology. The school also will have a strong focus on nanotechnology and new energy technologies, Cramb says.

Born and raised in Scotland, Cramb earned his bachelor’s degree in metallurgy at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow in 1975.

He received his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 1979.

Cramb worked as a research engineer for the former Bethlehem Steel company’s Pennsylvania-based research laboratories, where he launched his 20-plus years of pioneering research in continuous and direct casting, the process of turning liquid steel directly into the solid steel product.

The direct casting process is now in the early stages of commercialization in the United States and Cramb expects it to reduce energy consumption, as well as improving yield, productivity, and quality.

After seven years at Bethlehem Steel, Cramb joined Carnegie Mellon University in 1986 and became the co-director of the university’s Center for Iron and Steelmaking in 1990. In 2000, he became head of the Materials Science and Engineering Department.

Cramb, who also has been appointed the John A. Clark and Edward T. Crossan Professor of Engineering, joined Rensselaer on July 1.

“We are extremely excited about having Alan Cramb join us here at Rensselaer,” says Institute Provost G.P. “Bud” Peterson.

“His outstanding achievements as a scholar, particularly with his expertise in the field of materials science, one of our key thrust areas, coupled with his administrative experiences make him well qualified to lead the School of Engineering.”

Photo by Mark McCarty

MILESTONES

		Langdon Winner, professor of science and technology studies (STS), has been appointed to the newly endowed Thomas Phelan Chair in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (H&SS). The chair was created in honor of Thomas Phelan, former dean of H&SS. Phelan, professor emeritus and currently serving as Rensselaer’s Institute Dean and Historian, is known for his studies of the industrial history, architecture, and civic culture of the Hudson Mohawk region. Winner, an H&SS faculty member for 20 years, explores the ways in which technological choices express major developments in political society. Prior to being named to the Thomas Phelan Chair, Winner served as director of graduate studies in STS, and is now the co-director of the Center for Cultural Design in H&SS.

		Peter Kramer, assistant professor of mathematical sciences, has been awarded a Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The CAREER Award is given to faculty members at the beginning of their careers and is one of the NSF’s most competitive and prestigious awards, placing emphasis on high-quality research and novel education initiatives. Kramer will use the projected five-year, $412,138 grant to work on developing a new quantitative model to represent the interaction of water molecules and protein molecules with the aim of accelerating computational simulations, potentially leading to future medical applications.

		Linda McGown, professor and chair of chemistry and chemical biology, has been appointed to the editorial board of the journal NanoBiotechnology. A new international peer-reviewed journal, NanoBiotechnology publishes research papers covering all aspects at the intersection of nanotechnology, molecular biology, and biomedical sciences.

		B. Wayne Bequette, professor of chemical and biological engineering, has been elected vice president (president-elect) of the American Automatic Control Council (AACC) for 2006-7, and will become president in 2008-9. The AACC is an association of the control systems divisions of eight member societies, and is the U.S. National Member Organization of the International Federation of Automatic Control. A primary responsibility of the AACC is to sponsor, organize, and run the annual American Control Conference. He is also the vice chair of the Computing and Systems Technology division of AIChE, and will become chair in 2006.

		Thierry Blanchet, associate professor of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering, was recently elected a fellow of the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers.

		Jacob Fish has been named the Rosalind and John J. Redfern Jr. ’33 Chaired Professor in Engineering. Fish received his B.S. and M.S. from Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology. He received a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in theoretical and applied mechanics. He joined Rensselaer in 1989 as an assistant professor in civil engineering. In 1998 he was promoted to professor. He has published extensively. A fellow of both the International Association for Computational Mechanics and the U.S. Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM), Fish recently served as president of the USACM. In 1992, he was awarded a Presidential Young Investigator Award by the National Science Foundation. Fish is founder and editor-in-chief of the International Journal for Multiscale Computational Engineering.

		Jerry Matthews has been named director of public safety and emergency management. In this position, he will lead the Institute’s effort to expand and intensify the campus focus on public safety, security, and emergency management. Matthews comes to Rensselaer from the City University of New York, Lehman College, where he held the position of director of public safety since 1996. Formerly, Matthews was assistant superintendent of police with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Additionally, Matthews has a broad base of safety and security experience that includes developing college emergency plans, training faculty and staff on emergency procedures, and maintaining outreach programs with students, faculty, and staff.

		Robert Sands, clinical assistant professor of management, has received a Fulbright Scholar lecturing/research award in business. He will use the grant to travel to Tunisia, Africa, to lecture, instruct staff, and develop curriculum for the graduate management program at the Institute of Advanced Business Studies. As part of the Fulbright award, Sands will work with business incubators and technology parks to assess the vocational and management training needs of the country’s small and medium-size start-up companies, and develop business programs that would become available in Tunisian educational institutions.

		Samuel Wait ’53, associate dean of the School of Science, has been appointed acting dean of the school of science. Wait came to Rensselaer as an undergraduate student, and stayed to earn his master’s and doctoral degrees in physical chemistry. After studying in London as a Fulbright Scholar and teaching and working elsewhere, he returned to Rensselaer in 1961. He has received numerous honors including the Outstanding Faculty Award in 1988, the Alumni Admissions Recognition of Excellence Award in 1993, the Alumni Key in 1994, the Demers Medal in 1997, and the RAA Fellows Award in 2003. In June, Wait was honored with the RAA Distinguished Service Award (see page 42).

		Lester Gerhardt, associate dean of engineering, has been appointed acting vice provost and dean of graduate education. Gerhardt brings an extensive background in research, industry, and academia to the position. He served as chairman of electrical, computer, and systems engineering (ECSE) from 1975-1986. In 1986 he was appointed director of Computer Integrated Manufacturing; he also was the founding director of Rensselaer’s Center for Manufacturing Productivity

		Gene Robert Simons ’57, professor emeritus and former associate dean in the Lally School of Management and Technology at Rensselaer, died July 5. Simons spent more than 35 years at Rensselaer as professor and associate dean in management and in decision sciences and engineering systems. Simons was the recipient of the Darrin Counseling Award in 1989. He was a longtime board member and past president of the Workshop Inc. in Menands, N.Y., and was a member of the Guardian Society in Albany.

Rensselaer (ISSN 0898-1442) is published in March, June, September, and December by the Office of Communications.	Opinions expressed in these pages do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or the policies of the Institute.
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