The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering is looking for a new chair, who will complete a new generation of department leadership in the Pratt School of Engineering, set in place by Dean Kristina Johnson.
John Strohbehn, professor of biomedical engineering and former provost, is heading the search and hopes that a chair can be selected by the end of the fall semester. He added that the search is now calling back candidates to whom the search committee has already spoken.
The department hopes to grow in the information technology field over the next five years--from telecommunications to e-commerce and security to all-optical networks.
The largest undertaking is the Fitzpatrick Center for Photonics and Communications, which will occupy one of the two wings in the new Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Photonics, the study of massless packets of light known as photons, has applicable uses in optics, laser technology, electrical engineering, materials science and information storage and processing, and is one of the school's three strategic initiatives.
"The [information] technology in ECE is one of the most rapidly growing fields and we need someone in a leadership role who can utilize the expertise of our faculty members," said Gary Ybarra, director of undergraduate studies.
Strobehn, however, said the new chair will not necessarily be a photonics expert. Last year, David Brady arrived at Duke to head the photonics initiative; Johnson is also an expert in the field. Currently, Hisham Massoud is serving as the interim chair.
"Obviously that's an area that's important for us, but we feel the search should fundamentally be wide open, and we have enough flexibility as we look forward at the department," Strobehn said.
John Board, associate professor, works in computer engineering and said that the chair must work hard to ensure not all resources go toward photonics.
"I think the notion our dean has brought to us in making photonics one of the principle thrusts is a good one," Board said. "The challenge for the chair is that we pay attention to the rest of ECE as well. There are other things besides photonics in the department."
He said Duke has drawn a lot of interest because potential chairs would not have to stop conducting research and that the department is smaller than those at other universities where the electrical and computer engineering faculty is larger than Pratt's entire engineering faculty.
The new chair will join three other new chairs in the Pratt School of Engineering: Roni Avissar, chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Morton Friedman, chair of Biomedical Engineering and Kenneth Hall, chair of Mechanical Engineering and Material Sciences.
Johnson said that new leadership was important for the school as it looks to significantly expand into the new engineering building.
She noted that the previous chairs had been in those positions for some time and that they now wanted to focus more on research.
"It's just a long time to be serving in the position," she said.
Ybarra said the faculty have met with a handful of candidates in person and that the pool has been outstanding.
"[Candidates] stressed things from interdisciplinary research activities to creating one of the best undergrad programs in ECE in the nation," Ybarra said.
"There were multiple candidates who talked about incredible opportunities for collaborative research in the Medical Center and more research programs at the undergraduate level."
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