Glandt takes on position of interim dean

Chemical Engineering Prof. Eduardo Glandt will serve in place of departing Engineeing Dean Gregory Farrington. To fill the void created by the upcoming departure of Engineering Dean Gregory Farrington, the University named Chemical Engineering Professor Eduardo Glandt on Tuesday to the position of interim dean in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. In May, Farrington announced that he would be leaving the University, effective August 15, to assume the vacant presidency of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. Since the beginning of his deanship in 1990, Farrington -- a professor of materials science at Penn since 1979 -- has presided over the implementation of several interdisciplinary and dual-degree programs while tripling the school's endowment and doubling the number of endowed professorships. But the 53-year-old Glandt -- currently the holder of an endowed chair in chemical engineering -- is not without his own list of accomplishments. A native of Argentina and a 1968 graduate of the University of Buenos Aires, Glandt joined the faculty at Penn while still working on his doctorate in chemical engineering, which he received here in 1977. Glandt was chosen after several weeks of consultation among University President Judith Rodin, Interim Provost Michael Wachter, the Faculty Senate and the Engineering School's elected Faculty Council, which Glandt chaired for several years in the 1980s. He is expected to serve approximately one year while a nationwide search for Farrington's permanent replacement is conducted. "The key thing is not to lose any momentum," Glandt said. "Dr. Farrington started a good number of initiatives. What we wanted for the upcoming year was to accelerate and not lose momentum." Glandt identified the support of the Engineering School's programs in biomedical engineering, information science and cognitive science as strategic priorities for his term. In his more than 20 years at Penn, Glandt -- an expert in thermodynamics -- has been praised for both his teaching and his scholarship. In his first year at Penn, he won the Engineering School's Warren Award for Distinguished Teaching, and three years later, in 1980, was awarded the University-wide Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. Glandt was recognized by the American Chemical Society for the research he did on his doctoral thesis, and in 1996, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Glandt has also held virtually every administrative post in the Chemical Engineering Department, presiding over its centennial while chairperson from 1989-1993. He additionally served on the University's Academic Planning and Budget Committee last year and currently sits on the committee to select a new provost. "Dr. Glandt is an accomplished scholar, an outstanding teacher and a terrific University citizen," Wachter said. "He has just the right administrative and intellectual experience to lead the school during this time of transition." Glandt is also a hit with his students. Using instruments from the Music Department, a group of graduate students several years ago formed a classical music troupe known as "The Glandt Ensemble," a pun on the Grand Ensemble of statistical mechanics. Later, a group of his less Mozart-inclined budding engineers formed a punk rock group in their professor's honor, "The Swollen Glandts." Thus far, Glandt has found his new role -- which he will assume officially when Farrington leaves next month -- slightly overwhelming. "It's become interesting how much there is to the job that someone who isn't doing it ignores," he said. "Things seem to start on the spot." The process of selecting a permanent dean will not begin until the fall, when Rodin will appoint a search committee of four faculty members appointed by the president, four selected by the Engineering School faculty and two student representatives.

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