Message from the Dean - April 2008
Dear Friends of Engineering,
Growth is good, but not simply for its own sake. The UW's College of Engineering is growing strategically. We're expanding in ways that will help educate tomorrow's engineers and prepare us for where engineering is headed in the next 20 years.
Strategic growth requires strategic fundraising. I’m delighted to report that last month we reached our Campaign UW fundraising goal of $250 million. This was an aggressive target, especially given the size of our College, and we met it before the deadline. Reaching that goal speaks to the extraordinary support of friends and industrial partners who want to move UW engineering into the top tier of schools in the world. The impact of these contributions is already evident. Since launching Campaign UW in 2000, the College has doubled its endowed professorships and more than tripled student fellowships. The Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering, completed in 2003, and the William H. Foege bioengineering building, completed in 2006, are world-class facilities.
Our next construction goal is the UW's Molecular Engineering Building, now in the final design stages. It will be the first facility in the country dedicated to this emerging field. Molecular engineers design and synthesize molecular systems for a given function. This cross-disciplinary work requires expertise from materials science, chemical and bioengineering, and specialty areas such as nanotechnology and photonics. Molecular engineering has tremendous potential for societal impact in alternative energy, medicine, and structures. I'm excited because this new field brings the concept of design down to the molecular level. And design, on whatever scale, is what engineering is all about.
We are hiring 17 to 20 new faculty members for the next academic year. If we reach our target, this entering class of new faculty will be the largest in the College's history. I am continually impressed by the quality of engineers we have recruited in the past few years (see Young Hotshots, in this issue) and committed to bringing in more new talent. Many of the search committees for these positions are cross-disciplinary, and almost half the new positions will be connected to molecular engineering.
We're not growing just to be bigger. We're helping define a new intellectual area in molecular engineering, leveraging on local strengths in information technology, and forging interdisciplinary ties across the College, the University, and in the community.
This is a time to celebrate what we've accomplished and where we're headed. Learn more in this issue of Washington Engineer.
Sincerely,
Matt O’Donnell
Frank and Julie Jungers Dean of Engineering
