New Department Chairs Named for Chemical and Biomolecular
Engineering and Civil and Environmental Engineering
Two UCLA Engineering professors have been named
as department chairs. Harold Monbouquette is the chair of the Chemical
and Biomolecular Engineering Department. Jiun-Shyan (JS) Chen is
the chair the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department Both
appointments were effective on July 1, 2007.
“We are thrilled that Hal and JS will be
guiding their respective departments,” said Vijay K. Dhir,
dean of the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied
Science. “They are both outstanding researchers and have
the highest level of respect from their peers. I am certain they
will thrive in their leadership roles as they help move their
departments forward.”
Prof. Jiun-Shyan (JS) Chen |
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Jiun-Shyan (JS) Chen
Chair, Civil and Environmental Engineering
JS Chen received his PhD in 1988 from Northwestern University. He
arrived at UCLA in 2001 and holds joint appointments in the Mechanical
and Aerospace Engineering Department and the Department of Mathematics.
Prior to UCLA, Chen was a faculty member at the University of Iowa.
“The highest priority in the department
is the recruitment and hiring of outstanding faculty,” Chen
said. “Under the leadership of the past chair, Professor
Bill Yeh, we have made several successful hires in the past few
years and the importance of faculty recruitment is reflected in
the department’s performance in teaching and research activities.
With the limited resources and faculty lines, we need to be very
selective in optimizing our recruitment. Most importantly, we
need to hire faculty with outstanding research productivity and
teaching skills.”
When asked about what the future holds for the
department, Chen replied: “We need to prepare our students
to face the challenges of the 21st century and have the utmost
integrity for the world’s infrastructure and environment.
We need to continuously educate ourselves to be in the forefront
of scientific advancement, and be creative enough to turn challenges
into opportunities. This requires intra-disciplinary, cross-disciplinary,
and multi-disciplinary collaboration in research and development.”
Chen’s research centers on computational
methods for dynamic and nonlinear mechanics of materials and solids,
multi-scale materials modeling, simulation of microstructure evolution,
and biomechanics.
Chen was named a Chancellor’s Professor
in 2006. He is the editor-in-chief of the journal Interaction
and Multiscale Mechanics. He serves on the executive council of
U.S. Association for Computational Mechanics and will be its president
in 2010.
Prof. Harold Monbouquette |
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Harold Monbouquette
Chair, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Harold Monbouquette received his PhD
in chemical engineering from North Carolina State University in
1987. He joined UCLA Engineering that year.
“One central goal is to become one of the
top few departments of chemical and biomolecular engineering in
the nation,” he said. “To get there, we’ll need
help from everyone in our department – faculty, staff and
students. Fortunately, previous chairs have done a great job in
identifying the best talent for junior and senior faculty positions.
We also have an excellent staff and brilliant students. Nevertheless,
we must find ways to improve and to grow.”
Recently, Monbouquette played a key role in the
School’s revised undergraduate curriculum. He was instrumental,
along with Dean Dhir and Dr. Duke Bristow, in the development
of the School’s technology management sequence as a technical
breadth area for undergraduates. This three-course sequence introduces
concepts in economics, finance and entrepreneurship to engineering
students interested in exploring entrepreneurial opportunities
after graduation.
“As our department develops, we cannot lose
sight of the fact that our main product is well-educated and trained
young engineers,” Monbouquette said. “Our students
should be recruited heavily at graduation and should become the
future leaders in our profession. When an employer has a chemical
or biomolecular engineering position to fill, whether it be in
industry, academia, or government, I want that employer to think
of UCLA first.”
Monbouquette’s research focuses on the conception
and development of new technologies derived from living things,
and on the molecular engineering of surfaces for materials and
nanoelectronics applications. His work includes the development
of biosensors for neurotransmitters, submicron biocapsules for
drug delivery, surface nanopatterning for molecular electronics
and extreme thermophile biotechnology.
Monbouquette is a past recipient of the Department
of Energy Environmental Restoration and Waste Management Young
Faculty Award. He won the School’s TRW Excellence in Teaching
Award in 1991 and recently was elected a Fellow of the American
Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
- M. Chin
08/06/07
Monbouquette photo: Don Liebig
Chen photo: UCLA Photography
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