Jianmin Qu, dean of the School of Engineering at Tufts for six several years, will sign up for Stevens Institute of Engineering in September as its following provost and vice president for academic affairs.
Below his leadership, the College of Engineering established documents in undergraduate and graduate enrollments. Graduate enrollment in general has increased 38%, with the most extraordinary growth in graduate diploma purposes, which doubled about the previous six decades.
Qu also presided around transformative changes that integrated the start of seven master’s programs, three Ph.D. applications, 4 on-line degrees, and 5 certificates. Among initiatives that increased the pupil practical experience were new school positions that focused on training excellence.
Once-a-year study expenditures also grew from $20.74 million to $34.13 million during his tenure, an improve of practically 65%.
“It has been my honor to advance the College of Engineering’s exclusive method to training and research,” stated Qu, who has served as dean and Karol Family members Professor of Mechanical Engineering considering that 2015. He stated he was drawn to the Faculty of Engineering from his alma mater, Northwestern, by Tufts’ character, which he described as “collaborative by character, impressive in spirit, and focused on creating a distinction.”
The neighborhood he located at Tufts is remarkable, he mentioned. “Our faculty are devoted to exemplary educating and trailblazing exploration, our pupils are large-power trouble solvers,” he reported. “I have been inspired as properly by how we stand collectively to demonstrate aid for our shared mission—as we have in caring for our learners all through the COVID-19 pandemic and developing motion strategies to foster range, fairness, and inclusion. It has been a privilege to be aspect of this exceptional community, and I will always be grateful for the opportunity to serve Tufts.”
Tufts President Anthony P. Monaco claimed Qu’s management, together with his keen concentration on collaboration between faculty, assist for the scholar practical experience, and lengthy-range strategic planning strengthened the university and the university.
“I am deeply grateful for the inspiring management of Dean Qu,” said Monaco. “A gifted and tireless administrator, he elevated the University of Engineering to new heights and has been a pivotal associate as the university’s interdisciplinary scholarship and exploration expands in interesting directions. What’s most extraordinary is how this development has been guided by his open up and generous thoughts he has normally welcomed the views of school, pupils, alumni, and other users of our local community. I am grateful for his commitment and pride in Tufts, and wish him the greatest in his new and effectively-deserved position as provost.”
Qu came to review engineering after earning a degree in mathematics from China’s Jilin College in 1982. He went on to earn a master’s and Ph.D. in theoretical and utilized mechanics from Northwestern College, and created sizeable contributions to his subject. A textbook he co-authored, Fundamentals of Micromechanics of Solids, was the initially to provide a unified mathematical framework for the structure and assessment of composite resources it remains in large use nowadays.
His investigation in theoretical and applied mechanics has led to increased-performing materials, used in pure fuel pipelines and mobile mobile phone packaging. He also has innovative what is regarded as nondestructive evaluation know-how, employed to detect flaws in essential buildings such as airplane fuselages and nuclear reactors. In 2017, he acquired an award for lifetime achievement from SPIE, the global society for optics and photonics.
Qu started off his educating profession in 1989 at Ga Tech, where he rose by way of the ranks to professor of mechanical engineering. At Northwestern, he was Walter P. Murphy Professor from 2009 to 2015, throughout which time he was also chair of the division of civil and environmental engineering. Beneath his tenure, the department’s faculty grew much more than 25 percent and college student enrollment improved additional than 30 percent.
Qu, who also holds an government administration certification from Northwestern’s Kellogg College of Management, arrived at Tufts with a thoughts to create on the University of Engineering’s powerful marriage with other Tufts educational institutions and capitalize on the university’s collaborative and interdisciplinary character.
“To be a effective engineer today, you need to have to know much more than your engineering willpower,” he stated on the situation of his appointment. “If you want to make developments in engineering or science right now, it has to be interdisciplinary to have influence, due to the fact most of society’s challenges are interdisciplinary.”
Qu manufactured advancements across all areas of the university, with boosting visibility and enrollment among his leading priorities. At the undergraduate amount, apps elevated by more than 60% throughout his tenure as dean, and enrollment by more than 26%. This coming drop semester, the Faculty of Engineering will welcome additional than 300 new pupils, the largest incoming course at any time, up 45% from the incoming course of tumble 2015. Enrollment in the drop will be 1,116 undergraduates and 870 graduate pupils.
In 2018, the university obtained a important milestone when it enrolled the most gender-balanced undergraduate course in its record that year, women undergraduates accounted for shut to half of incoming engineering college students. The incoming undergraduate class remains close to gender parity, with girls accounting for either 49% or 50% of the incoming class for the earlier two many years and at 49% this fall, additional than double the national ordinary of about 20%.
To broaden tutorial offerings and maintain speed with evolving technologies and the needs of the marketplace, the faculty also designed modern, interdisciplinary degree courses underneath Qu’s leadership, in fields such as knowledge science, human-robot conversation, elements science and engineering, and offshore wind engineering. Other new initiatives include a cooperative training plan for undergraduates and the school’s to start with totally on the internet graduate degrees.
At the same time, engineering faculty partnered with scientists throughout the college to launch new interdisciplinary facilities advancing places with considerably-achieving impression, these as knowledge science, living resources, and antimicrobial resistance. Milestones included the launch of the Initiative for Neural Science, Condition & Engineering the Tufts Interdisciplinary Superior Materials Heart the Tufts Highly developed Microscopic Imaging Heart and the Tufts Epitaxial Main Facility for characterizing semiconductor slim movies. The faculty also sales opportunities all educational facilities at Tufts in entrepreneurship, filing much more patent and creation disclosures than any other Tufts school for the previous 5 several years in a row.
Qu joined Tufts at the start of the university’s $1.5 billion money marketing campaign, Brighter Planet, and has been instrumental in serving to the faculty surpass fundraising aims. Donations to the faculty exceeded more than $26 million very last 12 months, the 2nd maximum volume in the school’s background. His management was pivotal to securing multi-million greenback presents to create the Tufts Institute for Investigation on Finding out and Instruction and title the Derby Entrepreneurship Heart at Tufts.
A signature of his tenure as dean was a deep determination to building a individualized understanding working experience for pupils the new makerspace, the Nolop Fabrication, Evaluation, Simulation and Tests (Quick) Facility, for instance, invigorated arms-on understanding alternatives.
He also has championed investments that bridged engineering with other college schools and departments, and was particularly optimistic about the modern opportunity of Joyce Cummings Middle, a multidisciplinary academic developing set to open up in early 2022. The center will household the school’s Section of Computer system Science, Tufts Gordon Institute, and the Derby Entrepreneurship Center, along with other academic departments, these types of as arithmetic.
Qu mentioned he’s been motivated by observing Tufts college students building a change in culture, from STEM Ambassadors going to local educational facilities to JumboCode students producing engineering solutions for nonprofits.
“Giving again takes on authentic which means and scope here at Tufts,” he explained. “Students have a sturdy social conscience, and it’s been just one of the best benefits as dean to see how they translate that enthusiasm into significant and fulfilling function that takes them out of the classroom and into the wider entire world.”
Qu has also cultivated a feeling of what’s possible by growing the Dean’s Lecture sequence to two times a calendar year, providing students more prospects to listen to from prominent visitor speakers about their diversified paths to results.
Previous 12 months he led the college by means of conversations about anti-racism actions and the school’s Commitments to Range, Fairness, and Inclusion in STEM. The motion program now performs hand-in-hand with the school’s ten-yr strategic approach, “An Engine for Very good,” formulated under Qu’s management to manual the school by 2029.
That strategy, and its title, mentioned Qu, neatly sums up the philosophy that has driven him as dean.
“An remarkable engineer is often additional than an engineer by education,” he stated. “We’re termed on to supply thoughtful methods that have deep and long lasting societal benefits. We need to have engineers with insight, wisdom, and empathy—just the type of engineers we have viewed producing at Tufts. I have each individual expectation they will be leaders in regardless of what path they decide on.”
Laura Ferguson can be achieved at [email protected]
