David Brady, director of the Fitzpatrick Center for Photonics and Communication at the Pratt School of Engineering, will relinquish his directorship in order to focus more of his energies on research, Pratt Dean Kristina Johnson announced Wednesday.
Brady will step down at a key point in the center's development, with the center setting up shop in the new Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences building once construction is completed this summer. The Fitzpatrick Center will occupy one of the two 120,000-square-foot wings of CIEMAS, providing office and research space for at least 21 research and visiting faculty, 33 post-doctoral fellows, 22 staff and up to 250 graduate and undergraduate students.
Brady said the transition to CIEMAS should not be problematic, despite the change in leadership. April Brown, electrical and computer engineering chair, will serve as interim director effective July 1.
"Most of the project planning for CIEMAS took place two years ago," Brady wrote in an e-mail. "We have an excellent space plan in place and are prepared to open new teaching and research laboratories this summer. I have extremely high confidence that Dean Johnson and Professor Brown will manage a smooth transition to CIEMAS."
Johnson noted that when Brady steps down in July, he will have left the center in a very strong position to cope with the change in leadership. "When David took a chance and came to build the center in 2001, we didn't have anything. He put all the pieces together, and it has worked out really well," Johnson said. "The center's future looks bright because David has built it into something that people will want to come lead, which is really the best thing you can do for your institution."
Brady, the Addy Family Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, said he looks forward to his continued involvement with the Fitzpatrick Center. He will still head the Information Spaces Laboratory--one of five research labs in the Fitzpatrick Center--bringing the lab online in CIEMAS. He will also chair the electrical and computer engineering graduate studies committee, which is working on a novel vision for graduate study with the center's move.
Some of his greatest contributions, however, will come through his research, Johnson said. "While David was director, his research really cranked up, so he was torn between serving two masters," she said. "What he has chosen--research--is exactly what I want him to do. It's perfect."
Brady currently leads the Duke Integrated Sensing and Processing group, whose research focuses on the integration of physical and digital processing in optical sensors and is used in both biomedical and national defense applications. Brady said collaborations over the last three years with faculty members from computer science and mathematics have had a dramatic impact on the direction of his research, enabling him to work with his collaborators to build radically improved optical spectrometers and imaging systems.
Brady noted that, in view of the potential impact of this work, he and his collaborators have been awarded over $15 million in federal research contracts in the past year and a half. "I feel that I need to step away from my administrative role to ensure that the promise of our research is fully realized as quickly as possible," he said.
In the next year,Brady will complete a manuscript on computational optical sensors that he has been working on for the past seven years, begin testing an in vivo optical blood chemical analysis system, and build a first prototype of a "thin" digital imaging system for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Looking back on his three years as director of the Fitzpatrick Center, Brady said his greatest accomplishments were sustaining the center's momentum through a challenging period for the optical industry and developing regional and international partnerships for the center. The center is currently a partner in the North Carolina Photonics Consortium, and has developed relationships with National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan and the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
Johnson said a nationwide search for a new director will begin immediately. She noted, however, that the search committee will not have to rush unnecessarily to find a new director. "We wouldn't want the search to go beyond a year, but we are willing to take a year because the center is in the right position right now," Johnson said.
Johnson said the search for a new director is a wonderful opportunity to attract another world-class faculty member to the Fitzpatrick Center. She noted that she has already heard from several interested candidates, even though no advertisements have yet been placed announcing the position.
The Fitzpatrick Center is named for Duke alumni Michael and Patty Fitzpatrick, who helped establish the center with a $25 million gift in 2000.
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