Seventeen months after Oregon State ousted the head of its School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), the university on Friday named a replacement.
The school's new head is V. John Mathews, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Utah. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa and had been at Utah since 1985. Mathews chaired that school's electrical and computer engineering department for four years, beginning in 1999.
"I believe his multi-disciplinary research and leadership skills are the right combination to continue to grow and sustain an environment of academic and research excellence within the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science," engineering dean Scott Ashford said in a written statement.
Mathews' past research includes work with government agencies and industry, according to a note the school sent out announcing his hiring. Sponsors include the NASA Marshall Space Flight Research Center, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Raytheon Applied Signal Technology, Harman International, the National Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Oregon State's EECS program has been in flux since 2013, when a new dean of the engineering school moved to replace longtime head Terri Fiez. After vocal objections from faculty and large tech employers that work with OSU, the university delayed Fiez's departure for a year.
As the tumult intensified, though, Oregon State removed Fiez in February 2014 and simultaneously fired her boss, engineering dean, Sandra Woods. The school quickly named a new dean, Scott Ashford, but the EECS post had remained vacant.
In June, the University of Colorado Boulder hired Fiez as its vice chancellor for research.
-- Mike Rogoway
mrogoway@oregonian.com
503-294-7699
@rogoway