Dean, College of Engineering, The Ohio State University

Fri, February 3, 2012, 10:30 am - Fri, February 3, 2012, 11:30 am

Abstract

By some standards, I have had a successful career as an academic and an administrator, spanning the range from assistant professor to president of a Carnegie Tier–I research university. I was honored to receive the "Henry Clifton Sorby Lifetime Achievement Award of the International Metallographic Society (IMS) at their recent 2011 meeting. The word "lifetime" is a somewhat sobering adjective and it prompted me to think what in fact had I learned in my professional lifetime that might be of use to others, particularly to younger academics and researchers early in their careers.  So, in this talk (given first at the IMS meeting), I present my thoughts on how one can have a useful career as an electron microscopist / materials scientist and a university administrator. There are lessons to be learned from both sides – the bright field of microscopy and the dark field of administration. Occasionally the two sides can actually feed off one another rather than feed on.

Bio

Dr. David B. Williams is the 23rd Dean of The College of Engineering at The Ohio State University, a leading research institution and one of the nation’s most distinguished land-grant universities.  As Dean, Williams is responsible for the strategic vision, mission and goals of the college, oversees the education of more than 9,000 undergraduate and graduate students and leads the administration of 1,200 faculty, research scientists and staff.

Williams served as the fifth president of the University of Alabama in Huntsville from 2007 to 2011.  As president, he was instrumental in leading UAHuntsville into the Carnegie Foundation Tier-One research classification through the hiring of eminent scholars, the opening of the first office for Oak Ridge National Laboratory on any U.S. campus, and the creation of pioneering research collaborations such as one with Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne’s “Skunk Works”.

Before joining UA Huntsville, Williams spent 31 years at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., where he was Professor of Materials Science and Engineering.  From 1980 to 1998, he directed Lehigh’s Electron Microscope Laboratory and Microscopy School, long considered the world leader in electron-microscopy education.  He chaired Lehigh’s Materials Science & Engineering Department from 1992 to 2000 and was Vice Provost for Research from 2000-2007.