Glandt named permanent Engineering dean

A Chemical Engineering prof, Glandt had served temporarily since 1998. Sometimes what you're looking for is right beneath your nose. University President Judith Rodin named Eduardo Glandt -- who had been serving in an interim capacity since July 1998 -- as the Engineering School's permanent dean on Friday, capping an exhaustive search process that examined more than 200 possible candidates and spanned more than an entire academic year. "After a very long and appropriate search, we've come to realize that the most appropriate person to lead this school in the future is Eduardo Glandt," Rodin said, addressing a crowd of about 200 students and faculty members outside of the Towne Building Friday afternoon. Glandt was named interim dean following the departure of Gregory Farrington, who left Penn in May 1998 to assume the presidency of Lehigh University. Glandt, a Chemical Engineering professor who received both his master's and doctoral degrees from Penn in the mid-1970s, said that his more than two decades worth of experience at the University will serve him well in his position. "I feel like it's almost cheating -- coming into the deanship and knowing the school so well," Glandt said on Friday. Last November, Rodin and then-Interim Provost Michael Wachter appointed an 11-member search committee, chaired by Operations and Information Management Professor Morris Cohen, to find a new dean. The committee considered both internal and external candidates and submitted a list of finalists to Rodin and Provost Robert Barchi earlier this fall. The two administrators were ultimately responsible for selecting Glandt. "He was always a leading candidate throughout the process," Cohen said. "The longer he was interim dean, the clearer it became." One of the main priorities of his tenure, Glandt said in an interview Friday, is to bring together academic disciplines within the Engineering field. "I think the school is underutilized from the point of view of synergism," Glandt said. "Developing alliances between different parts of the school -- partnering all of our strengths -- is the responsibility of the administration." He also noted that he wanted to further develop programs in entrepreneurial engineering and increase "wet space" facilities -- special laboratory space with unique ventilation capabilities. During his tenure as interim dean, Glandt announced the construction of a computer science facility and focused on expanding the school's interdisciplinary programs. The conclusion of the search means that the University now has two high-profile deanships left to fill. Both the Wharton School and the Law School have been without permanent leadership since this summer, when Thomas Gerrity and Colin Diver left their respective positions. The search is comparable in length to the 13 months that it took to name Barchi as provost and the 15 months that it took to appoint School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston. "There was no point when the provost and the president expressed impatience with us," Cohen said. "We didn't have to be reminded of the fact that it was taking time." Cohen said the committee had been looking for a person of international stature, a "person of recognized capabilities" who could communicate equally well with students and potential donors. "We wanted someone who is going to be creative and exciting. I think Eduardo satisfied all of those criteria," Cohen said. The advantage of an internal candidate like Glandt, according to Cohen, is that he can "hit the ground running" and does not have to spend time learning the ins and outs of the school. Glandt, who received his bachelor's degree from the University of Buenos Aires in 1968, has been a member of the Penn faculty since 1975. He served as chairperson of Chemical Engineering Department from 1991 to 1994 and is a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and several other professional societies. "I think that someone who doesn't have the word 'interim' in front of his name has much more credibility -- with donors, with government sponsors and certainly in recruiting [faculty]" Glandt said. "I'm here for the duration," he added. "Penn has been my home for a quarter-century and I just can't see myself going anywhere else."

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