James Williams nominated as next dean of engineering

Executive Vice President and Provost Edward J. Ray, with the concurrence of President Brit Kirwan, has recommended the appointment of James C. Williams as dean of the College of Engineering, pending approval by the Board of Trustees. Williams currently is Ohio State's Honda Professor of Materials in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

The appointment, to be effective July 1, will go before the board on April 6. Williams will replace David B. Ashley, who is leaving Ohio State to become executive vice chancellor and provost of the University of California at Merced.

"I was strongly persuaded to make this appointment by the many faculty and staff in the college who recommended Jim based on his extraordinary record of accomplishments as a scholar and his management experience both inside and outside the University,"Ray said.

James Williams has been nominated as the next dean of the College of Engineering.

Williams' scholarship is reflected by his membership in the National Academy of Engineering, his successes as dean of engineering at Carnegie-Mellon University and as a general manager at General Electric Aircraft Engines, and his selection and exceptional record as Ohio State's Honda Professor of Materials.

"Jim's experience as dean of engineering at Carnegie-Mellon University in the mid-1980s -- coupled with his exceptional talents -- will allow him to advance the agenda of the college in strong alignment with the University's Academic Plan and will enable the college to continue on its path toward its goal of becoming one of the nation's leading colleges of engineering,"Kirwan said.

Williams joined OSU in 1999 after spending 11 years at General Electric Aircraft Engines, most recently as general manager of the Materials and Process Engineering Department. Before that, he spent 13 years at Carnegie-Mellon, serving as professor and dean of engineering and president of the Mellon Institute. He also has worked at North American Rockwell Corp. and the Boeing Co.

Williams is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the 1992 ASM International Gold Medal, the 1993 Leadership Award from The Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society/American Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum Engineers (TMS/AIME), and selection as a fellow of both ASM International and TMS/AIME.

He has consulted widely for government and private industry, and is the author of more than 200 publications in his field of research, which focuses on structure-property relations of high-strength materials, performance of materials in extreme environments, materials processing and technology policy, particularly as it pertains to materials and the management of high-technology organizations. He received bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in metallurgical engineering from the University of Washington.

By Jo McCulty Lisa Abrams is the new director of Women in Engineering.

College emphasizes recruitment of women

When Brette Luck entered Ohio State as a freshman, she admits, she hadn't thought much about the number of women students and faculty she would encounter while pursuing a degree in electrical and computer engineering.

"It wasn't something I really thought much about,"said the junior from Columbus. Since then, Luck said, she has realized the importance of increasing the number of women in the field.

"It's important to have other women to share your experiences with who are going through or have gone through similar situations,"Luck said. "Women have different perspectives and opinions than their male counterparts, so it's important to bring them into the mix when designing a new product or addressing consumer concerns."

Currently, women make up 9.9 percent of the students in the electrical and computer engineering department at Ohio State. Chemical engineering and industrial engineering lead the college, with women making up 35 percent in each department. A total of 17.95 percent of the college's total enrollment are women.

Lisa Abrams, the new director of Women in Engineering for Ohio State's College of Engineering, an office created to recruit more women into engineering, said women and minorities influence 80 percent of products purchased. "That's just one reason we need more women in engineering -- to meet the need of one of the largest consumer groups,"she said.

The industry is feeling these effects. Over the past several years, Abrams said, employers have started to realize the importance of having more women working in their companies and offices. Many of the employers calling her office to set up interviews on campus are asking to meet with the college's top women students.

"Companies are becoming more aware of the importance of having women as part of their design teams,"she said. "If you're Ford Motor Co., and you're in the process of designing a new minivan, you don't want your design team to be all men. Women make up a great deal of the consumer base for minivans, so you're going to want a woman's perspective, too."

Audeen Fentiman, associate dean in the College of Engineering, said the office Abrams is leading has been around for some time, but Abrams is the first full-time director in almost a decade.

Fentiman said the percentage of women engineering graduates is about equal to the percentage of incoming women engineering students. "We're doing a pretty good job of retaining our women students once they get here,"she said. "We need to focus more energy and resources on recruiting more women into the college. We can do that by talking with junior high and high school students to make them aware that engineering is a real option for women.

"These young women need to know what engineering is and what engineers do,"Fentiman continued. "We encourage them to take the math and science classes they'll need to be prepared when they get to college."

Fentiman said the national average of women enrolled in engineering is around 20 percent. "Our goal is to be above the national average,"she said.

Abrams said her office has several plans in the works to recruit more women into the college, including putting together fun science and engineering workshops for elementary and junior high school students, making presentations to local high schools, and participating in this year's Take A Daughter to Work Day on April 26.

Another way to increase the number of women students and faculty in the College of Engineering, and at Ohio State as a whole, is to recognize and provide for the needs of women on campus, said Judy Fountain, director of The Women's Place. Fountain said she played a special role in the hiring of Abrams as director of Women in Engineering.

"I had a chance to meet with each of the college's final candidates,"she said. "It gave them the chance to ask any questions they might hesitate to ask during the regular interview process, like information on child care and maternity leave, retention figures for women faculty and staff, and general information on the campus climate.

"Issues regarding balancing work life are very difficult to ask in an interview process,"she continued. "It's much easier to ask in an environment that isn't part of the interview."

The Women's Place began as a task force in 1997 and became an office reporting to the provost in 2000, and is a mechanism to connect all OSU-affiliated women and enhance the quality of life for the community of women within and beyond Ohio State.

Fentiman said she expects The Women's Place will continue to be a resource for Abrams and other women in engineering.

"Our women students go to Lisa (Abrams) with their questions specific to engineering, but at the same time we want them to know that The Women's Place is there to answer any questions they might have about the University and services available to them."

Court finds in favor of Ohio State

The Ohio Court of Claims on March 21 issued a decision in favor of Ohio State in a $21 million wrongful death lawsuit brought by the father of a deceased student. The court ruled that Ohio State was not responsible for the death of Shawn Wight, who died in 1997 nearly two months after Ohio State evacuated him from a mountain in Tibet, where he was part of a field research expedition.

The following statement was issued by Bradley Moore, vice president for research: "We are gratified that the court found Ohio State followed evacuation procedures appropriately and therefore was not responsible for Shawn Wight's death. At the same time, all of us, particularly the researchers and students who knew Shawn, were deeply saddened by his death.

"Field research is an integral part of the student academic experience at Ohio State. While classroom experience is an important first step, field research is a critical part of what we do here and is one of the reasons students are drawn to the important work being conducted by our faculty. Graduate and undergraduate students are encouraged to take part in field research because it can be a fundamental part of their education.

"Because all field research carries with it inherent risk, we constantly evaluate our research expeditions and stand behind our safety record."

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