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New Department Chairs Named for Bioengineering and Mechanical
and Aerospace Engineering
Professors Timothy Deming and Adrienne Lavine were
appointed as chairs of the Departments of Bioengineering and Mechanical
and Aerospace Engineering, respectively, effective July 1, 2006.
"We are privileged to have strong, dynamic faculty leading our departments,
and I am pleased to add Tim and Adrienne to their ranks," said Vijay
K. Dhir, dean of the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and
Applied Science. "I am certain that both will guide their departments
well with integrity and vision."
Prof. Timothy Deming |
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Deming received his PhD in chemistry from the University of California,
Berkeley in 1993, and joined UCLA in 2004 as a professor in the
departments of bioengineering and chemistry. Previously, he was
a professor in the materials and chemistry departments at the University
of California, Santa Barbara.
"I wasn't expecting to become chair so soon after arriving at UCLA,
but the high quality of our faculty and their unanimous support
made it the right decision for me," said Deming. "We have a very
good group of active, energetic young faculty, with a strong, cohesive
focus in biomaterials. We're a young department, which means we
have a lot of work ahead of us - developing courses, building our
research programs, recruiting talented students - but everyone is
working together very effectively, and we have a strong undergraduate
program with exceptional students."
Deming's lab is exploring new, practical chemical routes for the
synthesis of biological and biomimetic materials, which can be prepared
from renewable resources. By using techniques from both chemistry
and biology to prepare synthetic materials with targeted properties,
the researchers are leveraging strengths from both disciplines to
forge exciting new approaches.
Asked about his plans for the future, Deming replied, "We're finalizing
the courses in our undergraduate curriculum. This is our first year
with seniors, so we'll be teaching all of the classes this year.
We're also working on raising our department's profile in the bioengineering
community. We recently hosted the UC Systemwide Bioengineering conference,
which went very well, and are focusing on recruiting a widely-respected
senior faculty member. Later this year, we are really looking forward
to moving into the new engineering building. Having all of our faculty
and laboratories in one location - not scattered throughout the
engineering complex - will help build stronger collaborations within
the department."
Prof. Adrienne Lavine |
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Lavine, the first woman to serve as department chair in the School,
has been part of the mechanical and aerospace engineering faculty
since 1984, after receiving her PhD in mechanical engineering from
University of California, Berkeley. In 2005-06, she served as chair
of the UCLA Academic Senate.
"I am excited at the prospect of working with colleagues and staff
to improve our department. The foundation that Tom Hahn established
will make my job much easier, and I greatly appreciate his four
years of service as chair," said Lavine. "The responsibility of
department chair is awe-inspiring, and I take the responsibility
very seriously. There are a number of people in the department who
would be very effective chairs, so I feel humbled to have been selected."
Lavine's field of research is heat transfer and her interests include
the thermomechanical behavior of shape memory alloys, thermal aspects
of manufacturing processes, and thermal control of nano-manufacturing
systems.
When asked about her priorities as chair, Lavine responded, "The
most important job of a department chair is to support the faculty,
and to recruit excellent new faculty. We're fortunate to have a
really stellar faculty in place and are in a period of growth, so
recruiting additional faculty in key areas is one of my primary
goals. Another critical element to the department's strength is
our students, and we want to work even harder to attract top-caliber
graduate students. I think our undergraduates are an underutilized
resource; they're great students with a lot of energy and we'd like
to involve them more in the department and their own education.
For instance, senior students could offer workshops to younger students
on topics like the use of different computer software packages.
Lastly, I want to make sure that we build on past efforts to strengthen
ties with industry and increase our interaction with our industrial
affiliates."
She also is director of education and outreach for the UCLA Center
for Scalable and Integrated Nanomanufacturing, an NSF-funded Nanoscale
Science and Engineering Center at UCLA whose mandate is to establish
an array of new nano-manufacturing technologies.
- Marlys Amundson
Photo credits:
Cassanna Ouelette
Reed Hutchinson
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