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I am often inspired hearing about the positive impact our faculty members have on our students and alumni starting out their careers.

Over the next two years, several of these extraordinary faculty members will retire, including, as you read in this newsletter, Professor Dave Clough after 42 years in the department. At the same time, our student enrollment continues to grow, requiring that we hire additional faculty members to teach our many classes.

So this spring, we are working on finding the next generation of faculty who will teach, guide and mentor our students to prepare them to be leaders in chemical and biological engineering. This is no small task, as we expect the faculty members we hire to be leaders in research and exceptional teachers—and other universities are competing to hire these same outstanding candidates.

Hiring faculty is a complex and incredibly important effort that happens behind the scenes. Early in the fall, we advertised our open positions and were fortunate to receive almost 500 applications. We brought 14 exceptional candidates to campus for two-day interviews that include individual meetings with faculty, a research seminar by the candidate and a “vision talk” to hear about their goals as a faculty member, including their teaching approach, courses they would like to teach and research projects they plan to pursue.

The process makes for an extremely busy schedule, but it’s worth the effort. Our goal is to find faculty members who will continue our tradition of exceptional teaching, education leadership, dedication to students and commitment to research excellence. We’re also adding to our ranks of instructors and support staff, including the recent addition of administrative coordinator Megan Wierzbinski.

In the coming months, we hope to introduce several new faces to our already stellar lineup. With each new addition to our team, we grow our department’s capacity to perform our critical mission: educating future engineering leaders and achieving research breakthroughs that change the world.

Charles Musgrave
Department Chair