University of New Mexico Provost Chaouki Abdallah has invited four finalists to campus this fall for the position of Jim and Ellen King Dean of Engineering and Computing at the UNM School of Engineering. Each candidate will meet with faculty, staff, students and community members during their visit.

The finalists are Christos Christodoulou, JoAnn Lighty, Naz Karim, and Ed Seebauer.

Open forums for each candidate have been scheduled.

“The search committee was very pleased with the experience, strength, and diversity of our applicant pool”, said Julie Coonrod, search committee chair and professor of civil engineering at UNM.

The Finalists:

Christos Christodoulou
Christos Christodoulou

Christos Christodoulou
Christodoulou is the associate dean for research at the School of Engineering and is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.   He previously served as chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering from 1999-2005.  He is one of the founders of COSMIAC (Configurable Space Microsystems Innovations and Applications Center) and served as director from 2012-2014.

Campus visit dates: Thursday-Friday, Nov. 17-18
Open forum:  Thursday, Nov. 17, 4 - 5 p.m., Centennial Engineering Auditorium

Full bio - Christodoulou

JoAnn Lighty
JoAnn Lighty

JoAnn Lighty
Lighty is professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Utah. She is currently on loan to the National Science Foundation (NSF), where she is serving as the director of the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (CBET) in the Directorate of Engineering. Lighty previously served as department chair in Chemical Engineering at the University of Utah from 2007-2013.  From 1997-2004 she served as associate dean for academic affairs for the College of Engineering at University of Utah.

Campus visit dates: Monday-Tuesday, Nov. 21-22
Open forum:  Monday, Nov. 21, 4 - 5 p.m., Centennial Engineering Auditorium

Full bio - Lighty

M. Nazmul Karim
M. Nazmul Karim
 

M. Nazmul Karim 
Karim is the Michael O’Connor Chair II and the head of the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University.  He was a professor of chemical engineering at Colorado State University for over 20 years.  He has held the Whitacre Endowed Chair and served as department chair of Chemical Engineering at Texas Tech University for eight years before joining Texas A&M. Karim has also served as a distinguished visiting professor at many international universities, including Technical University of Denmark and Osaka University.

Campus visit dates: Thursday-Friday, Dec. 1-2
Open forum:  Thursday, Dec. 1, 4 - 5 p.m., Centennial Engineering Auditorium

Full bio - Karim

Edmund Seebauer
Edmund Seebauer

Edmund Seebauer
Seebauer is the James W. Westwater Endowed Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  He has served on the faculty there since 1988, including serving as department head from 2005-2011.  In 2011-2014 he served as a Provost Fellow for the Illinois campus, functioning as a special-assignment associate provost focusing on international academic programs. Seebauer has received a Sloan Research Fellowship in Chemistry and an Inventor Recognition Award from Semiconductor Research Corporation.

Campus Visit dates: Thursday-Friday, Dec. 8-9
Open forum:  Thursday, Dec. 8, 4 - 5 p.m.., Centennial Engineering Auditorium

Full bio - Seebauer

Questions regarding the visits or the search can be addressed to Search Coordinator Jennifer Love, engdeansearch@unm.edu.

For more information on the search, visit Jim and Ellen King Dean of Engineering and Computing.