U of M chemical engineering alumnus named University presidential finalist
Contact: Daniel Wolter, University News Service, wolter@umn.edu, (612) 624-5551
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (11/12/2010) —The University of Minnesota Board of Regents named a finalist in the search to succeed President Robert Bruininks, when he leaves the presidency in June 2011. The finalist is Eric W. Kaler, Provost at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York, and a chemical engineering alumnus of the University of Minnesota.
Kaler is currently the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Vice-President for Brookhaven Affairs at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York. Appointed as the ninth Provost of Stony Brook University in October of 2007, Kaler received his undergraduate degree from California Institute of Technology in 1978 and his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1982.
Prior to his appointment at Stony Brook, Kaler was a member of the faculty of the University of Delaware from 1989-2007. He served as the Chair of the Chemical Engineering Department from 1996 to 2000 and Dean of the College of Engineering from 2000 to 2007. Kaler was named the Elizabeth Inez Kelley Professor of Chemical Engineering in 1998. He was an assistant professor and an associate professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington from 1982 to 1989.
In 2010, Kaler was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. He also received the Curtis W. McGraw Research Award from the American Society of Engineering Education in 1995, the American Chemical Society Award in Colloid or Surface Chemistry in 1998, and distinguished lectureship awards around the world. In 1984, Kaler was one of the first to receive a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation. He is a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Chemical Society. He is the author or co-author of one edited book and more than 200 papers, which have been cited more than 9,000 times, and holds 10 U.S. patents. Kaler's research interests are in the area of surfactant and colloid science, statistical mechanics, and thermodynamics.
Kaler will visit campus Wednesday, Nov. 17 and Thursday, Nov. 18 to meet with various constituencies in the university community and also to interview with the Board of Regents.
The Presidential Search Advisory Committee received 148 nominations and applications to review. Four were recommended to the Board of Regents and the finalist was accepted by the board for consideration. If appointed, Kaler would be the second University alumnus to lead the school as president. The first was Malcolm Moos, who was president from 1964 until 1974.
For more information on the search, the schedule for the finalist's visits to the University campus and additional biographical information on Dr. Kaler, please visit www.presidentsearch.umn.edu.