Popular Engineering dean leaves U. for Lehigh presidency

To fill the void created by the recent departure of former Engineering Dean Gregory Farrington, the University named Chemical Engineering Professor Eduardo Glandt to the position of interim dean of 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. Farrington -- a professor of materials science at Penn since 1979 -- became the 12th president in Lehigh's 122-year history. He replaced Interim President William Hittinger, who served since August 1997. Hittinger assumed the position after Peter Likins left to become chancellor of the University of Arizona at Tucson, a position for which former Penn Provost Stanley Chodorow was a finalist. The 53-year-old Glandt -- a native of Argentina and a 1968 graduate of the University of Buenos Aires -- currently holds an endowed chair in chemical engineering. Glandt joined the faculty at Penn while still working on his doctorate in chemical engineering, which he received here in 1977. Glandt, who was appointed July 7, 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 improving 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, he was awarded the University-wide Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. Glandt has also held virtually every administrative post in the Chemical Engineering Department, presiding over its centennial while chairperson from 1989 to 1993. Interim Provost Michael Wachter -- who was part of the committee formed to select the interim dean -- said that Glandt "has just the right administrative and intellectual experience to lead the school during this time of transition." The process of selecting a permanent dean will begin this semester, when University President Judith Rodin convenes a search committee of four faculty members appointed by the president, four faculty selected by the Engineering School faculty and two student representatives.

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