First Female UMN ME PhD Becomes President of Oregon State University

Dr. Jayathi Murthy, the first woman to receive a PhD in mechanical engineering at the University of Minnesota, was recently named President of Oregon State University — where she will be the first woman of color to lead Oregon's largest public university. 

Murthy's career has been a series of groundbreaking, path-clearing firsts. She served as the Ronald and Valerie Sugar Dean at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, where she was the first female dean. While at UCLA, she led the effort to establish Women in Engineering at UCLA, and helped raise more than $330 million in philanthropic donations.

Prior to joining UCLA, Murthy held faculty positions at the University of Texas at Austin, Purdue University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Arizona State University. 

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