About // Leadership // Former chairs
Former Chairs
Cristina Amon
2008 - 2009 // Canada
Cristina Amon has been the Dean of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and Alumni Professor of Bioengineering in Mechanical & Industrial Engineering since 2006. She received her Mechanical Engineering diploma from Simón Bolívar University, and her MS and ScD degrees in 1988 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Prior to her leadership at the University of Toronto, she was the Raymond J. Lane Distinguished Professor and Director of the Institute for Complex Engineered Systems at Carnegie Mellon University.
A pioneer in the development of Computational Fluid Dynamics for formulating and solving thermal design problems subject to multidisciplinary competing constraints, she conducts research in nanoscale thermal transport in semiconductors, energy systems and bioengineered devices.
Dean Amon serves on the BoD of MKS Instruments Inc., a leading global provider for advanced manufacturing of semiconductor devices, energy generation and electro-optical products. She is chair of the research committee of NCDEAS (National Council of Deans of Engineering and Applied Science), past chair of the Global Engineering Deans Council, and serves on advisory boards for several institutions including Stanford, UCLA, UIUC and Waterloo.
Cristina Amon has received numerous professional and leadership awards, including the ASME Gustus Larson Memorial Award, ASEE Westinghouse Medal, ASME Heat Transfer Memorial Award, and the Society of Women Engineers’ Achievement Award. In 2012 she was recognized as one of Canada’s most Influential Women. She was inducted to four academies: Canadian Academy of Engineering, Spanish Royal Academy, Royal Society of Canada and the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. She is an elected fellow of all major professional societies in her field and has authored over 350 refereed articles in education and research literature.
Hasan Mandal
2009 - 2010 // Turkey
Hasan Mandal (Prof.Dr.) received his BSc in Metallurgy from Middle East Technical University (Turkey) in 1987 and PhD in Ceramic Materials from University of Newcastle (UK) in 1992. He worked as a postdoctoral research associate during the periods of 1992-1996 and 1997-1998 at Newcastle and Karlsruhe Universities, respectively. In 1996, he joined the department of Ceramic Engineering at Anadolu University. He became the Head of Department (1999), Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at Anadolu University (2004), Chairperson of Turkish Engineering Deans Council (2006), Chairperson of Global Engineering Deans Council (GEDC-2009) and Vice Rector of Anadolu University (2010). He has co-authored over a hundred publications, three patents about science and technologies on Si3N4 based ceramics including phase relationships, structure-property relations and applications, specifically on cutting tools. There have been over 750 cites to his publications and his h factor is 15. He has also contributed in the field of education and university-industry relations. Because of these achievements, he was honored by twenty awards including TUBITAK Science Award and European Ceramic Society, Stuijts Award. As a scientific expert, he served in several positions including the Turkish Scientific and Research Council, National Boron Institute, Eskisehir Technological Development Park, Ceramic Research Center Co. Prof. Dr. Mandal is a Council and Permanent Executive Committee members of European Ceramic Society (ECerS), Council Member of International Ceramic Federation (ICF) and Consulting Member of World Innovation Foundation (WIF). He was President of European Ceramic Society (ECerS) and was the First Vice President of International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES).
David Garza Salazar
2010 - 2011 // Mexico
David Garza Salazar is the President of Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus Monterrey in Mexico. He received his B.Sc. in computer science and engineering from Tec de Monterrey in 1985 and obtained a Ph.D. in computer science from Colorado State University in 1996. As a Faculty Member at Tec de Monterrey he has advised multiple theses, has been author of multiple journal/conference and book articles, and worked as consultant in different industry projects. He twice received the Distinguished Faculty Award. He has also been the Director of Research and Graduate Programs in Information and Communication Technologies; Dean of the Division of Computing, Information and Communications; and Dean of the School of Engineering and President of Campus San Luis Potosi.
Dr. Garza Salazar is a member of professional societies and organizations such as: ASEE, IEEE, ACM, Sigma Xi, and Phi Kappa Phi. He has served in different conference committees. He is Chair of the Global Engineering Deans Council (GEDC), an initiative created with the support of American Association of Engineering Education and International Federation of Engineering Education Societies. He has been a Member of the following boards and councils: San Pedro-Nuevo Leon Technology Innovation Council, the Council for the Software Industry Development of Nuevo Leon, the Microsoft Research Committee of the Latin American region, Mexican Council of Exterior Commerce in San Luis Potosí, and San Luis Potosí’s Science and Technology Council in San Luis Potosí among others.
Source: http://gedc2013.engineering.nd.edu/bio-pdfs/salazar.pdf
Sarah Rajala
2011 - 2013 // United States of America
Sarah Rajala became the Dean, James & Katherine Melsa Professor in Engineering, College of Engineering, at Iowa State University on April 1, 2013.
Prior to her becoming dean at Iowa State University, Sarah A. Rajala was professor and dean of engineering at Mississippi State University and held the Earnest W. and Mary Ann Deavenport Jr. Endowed Chair. She received her BS degree from Michigan Technological University, and MS and PhD degrees from Rice University.
From 1979 to 2006 Dr. Rajala was a member of the faculty at North Carolina State University and served as director of the Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Advanced Computing and Communication, associate dean for academic affairs, and associate dean for research and graduate programs. In 2006, she became the department head of electrical and computer engineering at Mississippi State University and held the James Worth Bagley Endowed Chair. During her career she conducted research on the analysis and process of images and image sequences and on engineering educational assessment. She has directed 17 master’s theses and 16 PhD dissertations, has authored and co-authored more than 100 refereed papers, and has made contributions to 13 books.
Dr. Rajala has received numerous awards for her research and professional contributions, including the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring in 2000 and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and the American Society for Engineering Education. In 2008-2009, she served as the president of the American Society for Engineering Education. She has been recognized by Michigan Technological University as the Outstanding Young Alumnus in 1986, elected to the Council of Alumnae and Academy of Outstanding Electrical Engineers 1996, and was named their Outstanding Alumnus in August 2008.
John Beynon
2013 - 2015 // Australia
Born on the Isle of Man, John Beynon spent much of his career at Sheffield University in the UK, where he held professorial positions in metallurgy and mechanical engineering. He also graduated from Sheffield with a Bachelor of Metallurgy degree (in physical metallurgy) followed by a PhD in the same Department. He then went to the Max Planck Institute for Ferrous Research in Düsseldorf, Germany, followed by a lectureship and senior lectureship at Leicester University before rejoining Sheffield as a Professor, and later Head, of Mechanical Engineering. Sabbaticals in the USA and Australia preceded moving to Australia as Dean of Engineering at Swinburne University of Technology in 2005. Seven years later he moved to the University of Adelaide to be Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences. He began as Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Flinders University in July 2016, retiring in July 2018. He has been President of the Australian Council of Engineering Deans for two years and was subsequently Chair of the Global Engineering Deans Council for over two years until December 2015. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining in the UK, and is a Fellow of Engineers Australia and of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE). He has been listed in Engineers Australia’s Top 100 Most Influential Engineers in Australia for 2011-2015, and in 2015 was awarded the Bessemer Gold Medal in the UK for services to the steel industry.
Peter Kilpatrick
2015 - 2017 // United States of America
Peter Kilpatrick served as the McCloskey Dean of Engineering at the University of Notre Dame until 2018, when he became the new Provost at Illinois Institute of Technology. An accomplished teacher and researcher, Kilpatrick joined the University in January 2008. He came to Notre Dame from North Carolina State University (NCSU), where he had served on the faculty for 25 years and as head of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering since 1999. He also served as the Founding Director of the North Carolina Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC), a unique learning and training facility designed to train the next generation of Biopharmaceutical professionals and Biotechnology industry professionals. BTEC now trains more than 500 North Carolinians each year for the biopharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. In addition, BTEC has a unique relationship training FDA inspectors.
Kilpatrick conducts research in colloidal and interfacial science, with an emphasis on the colloidal and molecular properties of crude oil and on biological membranes. His specific interests are in the ways in which complex molecules aggregate in solution and the ways in which those aggregates self assemble on and adsorb to interfaces. His work is leading to oil production and refining that is both more energy efficient and better for the environment. He is the author of more than 90 refereed journal publications and the holder of 13 patents.
Kilpatrick has collaborated in the launch of a unique professional MS program in technology entrepreneurship, an undergraduate engineering leadership program, and an interdisciplinary MS program in data analytics. He and his colleagues are also launching a new Department of Bioengineering at the University of Notre Dame.
In his time at the University of Notre Dame as Dean of Engineering, the College has grown its undergraduate enrollment by nearly 80%, has increased the size of its faculty by more than 40% and has more than doubled its external research funding to more than $50 Million per year.
Natacha DePaola
2017 - 2019 // United States of America
Natacha DePaola serves as the Carol and Ed Kaplan Armour Dean of Engineering and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Illinois, USA (2009-present). In 2016, Dr. DePaola became GEDC Chair elect, and will assume the position as GEDC chair in October 2017, serving until the GEDC conference in 2019.
Dr. DePaola received the B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Universidad Simon Bolivar, Caracas- Venezuela (1984), an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1987), and a Ph.D. degree in Medical Engineering/Medical Physics from the Division of Health Science and Technology at Harvard Medical School – Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1991). She completed her postdoctoral training at Columbia University in the Artificial Organs Research Laboratory (1992), where she also held a position as an adjunct assistant professor of chemical engineering. In 1993 she moved to Northwestern University as an assistant professor of biomedical engineering. In 1994, she joined the biomedical engineering faculty at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where she served as assistant, associate, and full professor, and department head from 2004-2009. Dr. DePaola also held an adjunct faculty position at the Center for Cardiovascular Sciences at the Albany Medical College.
Dr. DePaola has received various awards and recognitions including the 2012 IEEE Woman in Engineering Award, the Carol and Ed Kaplan Endowed Chair Professorship (2009), Chicago’s Women of Achievement Award (2009), a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 1996, and selection to the 5th Japan-USA-Singapore-China Conference on Biomechanics US delegation (1998). She is a Frontiers Alumna of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), Frontiers of Engineering (1997).
Dr. DePaola is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and a member of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), The Society of Woman Engineers (SWE), the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), and the Global Engineering Deans Council (GEDC). She is also a member of Tau Beta Pi Association and The Scientific Research Society (Sigma Xi) and a former member of the Board of Editors of MCB: Molecular and Cellular Biomechanics Journal. Dr. DePaola had served on the Strategic Initiatives Committee of the Harvard-MIT Health Science and Technology (HST) Advisory Council and on the Advisory Committee for the Severino Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (Lally School of Management, Rensselaer). She currently serves in the Public Policy Committee of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), the Advisory Board of the Perdue’s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, the Executive Committee of the Global Engineering Deans Council (GDEC), and the Board of Directors of the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Technology and Education (NIPTE).
Şirin Tekinay
2019 - 2021 // United States of America
Prof. Şirin Tekinay most recently served American University of Sharjah as Dean of College of Engineering starting February 1, 2020 for a year. Prof. Tekinay has held posts of academic administration as Dean of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Vice President for Research and Development, and Rector and Chancellor during the last decade. Prior to her tenure in Istanbul the last decade, she lived in the United States where she served as Program Director at the US National Science Foundation; she was a tenured faculty member at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Director of NJ Center for Wireless Telecommunications. She was the elected ’19-’21 Chair of Global Engineering Deans Council (https://www.gedcouncil.org ) and a Board Member of the European Society for Engineering Education. Before starting her academic career, she was a researcher at Bell Laboratories. Dean Tekinay holds a Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from George Mason University, Virginia, and the MS and BS degrees in Electrical-Electronics Engineering from Bogazici University, Istanbul.
Professor Tekinay holds nine patents and has authored numerous publications in her field. She has actively mentored six doctoral students. Her areas of interest include network science, mobile networks, sensor networks, and applications. She founded the first digital local fabrication laboratory in Turkey; “FabLab Istanbul,” and has helped develop the next few FabLabs in the country. AUS boasts the 4th and best equipped FabLab in Turkey. She also started the first comprehensive program in Urban Engineering research and education.
She is one of the pioneers of the five-dimensional STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) approach to education and research, in addition to new multidisciplinary lines of study, innovation and entrepreneurship, and the Maker Movement through FabLabs.
In the global arena, Dr. Tekinay is a member of the European Engineering Deans Council – EEDC. She is a consultant and expert reviewer for the European Commission (EC) on Science and Technology. She sits as elected member on the Board of Directors of the European Society for Engineering Education (Societe Europeenne pour la Formation des Ingenieurs – SEFI) and on the Executive Committee of the Global Engineering Deans Council – GEDC. Nationally, she is an honorary member of the board of Beyaz Nokta Development Foundation and a member of the advisory board of KAGİDER (Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey).
Education
Ph. D. Electrical and Computer Engineering George Mason University, VA 1994
M. S. Electrical & Electronics Engineering Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey 1991
B. S. Electrical & Electronics Engineering Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey 1989
Sunil Maharaj
2021 - 2023 // South Africa
Sunil (BT) Maharaj is a Professor in the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering. He has a combined experience of more than 33 years in industry as a microwave and RF design engineer, academia and consulting. He holds a BSc Engineering (Electronic), MSc Engineering (Electronic), MSc Operational Telecommunications and a PhD Engineering. He is also a professional engineer registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA), a Fellow of the South African Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers and Senior Member of IEEE. In 2018 he was the founding Chair of the IEEE SA Section Vehicular Technology Society (VTS) Chapter. He has been involved in organizing many conferences and technical events such as IEEE Africon, IEEE ICC 2010 and as General Conference Chair for IEEE VTS 2019 Wireless Africa Conference and the 2020 and 2022 World Engineering Education Federation and Engineering Deans Council Conference. He has been the first African Dean to be elected as the Global Engineering Dean Council Chair and assumed the Chair in November 2021. Dr Maharaj since 2008 held the position of Sentech Chair in Broadband Wireless Multimedia Communications and has more than 170 international peer reviewed conference and journal articles, 2 international patents and winner of 10 national and international awards. His research interests are in broadband wireless communications with a focus on 5G cognitive radio sensor networks resource allocation, OFDM-MIMO systems, wireless channel modelling and edge computing communications systems. Dr Maharaj was in 2021/2022 the President of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers (SAIEE) and since 2017 Chair of TuksNovation NPC Board which is a hi-tech business incubator and accelerator.
He was previously the Head of Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering and between 2014 and 2022 served as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology (EBIT) until his appointment as Vice-Principal: Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Education on 1 August 2022.