COLUMBUS -- Ohio State University’s engineering dean has accepted a position as chief academic Officer at a new University of California campus, subject to approval by California’s Board of Regents and effective this summer.

David B. Ashley, the John C. Guepel Professor in Civil Engineering and Dean of the College of Engineering, will become executive vice chancellor and provost of the University of California at Merced, the first new campus in 35 years in California’s statewide system of higher education.

“The challenges are indeed enormous; the rewards promise to be just as extraordinary,” Ashley said. “I am humbled that I have been asked to serve in a leadership role in developing this new university.

“My role will be to build this campus from the ground up, including defining all academic programs and hiring all the faculty for the first new research university of the 21st century,” said Ashley. “UC Merced will be a comprehensive university with a special emphasis on science and engineering.”

Groundbreaking for the first of more than a dozen new buildings on the 2,000-acre campus will take place next year, and the first of an eventual 25,000 students will arrive on campus in fall 2004. UC Merced will hire approximately 100 faculty by 2004 and 300 by 2008.

"We are very sorry to see David Ashley leave Ohio State," said university President William E. Kirwan. "I'll miss him as a colleague and a friend. Under his leadership, our college has risen dramatically in quality and national stature. His commitment to our goal of becoming one of the nation's truly great teaching and research universities has been of enormous value, not just in engineering but also across the entire university. We will build on the momentum he has generated, as we continue our drive for a College of Engineering ranked in the 'top ten'. I don't know a better individual to tackle the challenge presented to him by the University of California. The opportunity to build new programs, much less an entire new campus, are rare in the world of higher education, and we wish him well," Kirwan said.

Ashley joined Ohio State’s engineering faculty in November 1997. Prior to that, he had served as the Taisei Professor and chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley since 1993. He is internationally recognized for his work in risk analysis techniques for project management and construction engineering decisions.

“David is an exceptionally talented, energetic and creative scholar and administrator,” said Ohio State Executive Vice President and Provost Ed Ray. “He has done a remarkable job as Dean of our College of Engineering, and we are all genuinely sorry to see him leave. In the short time he has been with us, David has established a solid foundation for us to take the next steps for our College of Engineering to be one of the truly great colleges in the world.”

Ashley holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as a master’s degree in engineering-economic systems and a doctorate in civil engineering from Stanford University. He has held faculty appointments at MIT and the University of Texas at Austin, as well as visiting professorships and other invited positions in Denmark, South Africa, Sweden, Chile and Singapore.

###

(LO)