Message from the Dean

It’s a pleasure to be back in the dean’s chair for the College of Engineering. 

Many thanks to Sandra Woods for her commitment to the college and numerous accomplishments during her service as dean, particularly for the initiative she took to establish this means of communication with our valuable industry supporters. 

For this issue, we talked to Steve Malany, president of the Associated General Contractors Oregon–Columbia Chapter. He shares some great ideas about the role education plays in ensuring that we have a strong construction workforce in the future.

In addition, we were keenly interested in the findings of a recently released study in Harvard Business Review, which reveals that diversity drives innovation and market growth. This is no surprise at the College of Engineering, but it’s nice to know that our efforts to attend to diversity are serving our graduates on multiple levels.

And finally, we’ll introduce you to a Ph.D. student in nuclear engineering, Jeff Luitjens, who is doing some exciting work in theoretical modeling that could significantly improve nuclear reactor safety. Our cutting-edge test facilities are making Jeff’s work possible.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about this issue and anything else that’s on your mind. Let’s keep working together to engineer a better future.

Scott A. Ashford, Ph.D.
Kearney Professor and Dean
College of Engineering
Oregon State University