COLUMBUS -- Executive Vice President and Provost Edward J. Ray, with the concurrence of President William E. Kirwan, has recommended the appointment of James C. Williams as dean of the College of Engineering, pending approval by the university’s Board of Trustees. Williams currently serves as Ohio State’s Honda Professor of Materials in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

The appointment, to be effective July 1, will go before the board at its next meeting on April 6. Williams will replace departing Dean David B. Ashley, who is leaving Ohio State to 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.

“I was strongly persuaded to make this appointment by the many faculty and staff in the college who recommended Jim based on his extraordinary record of accomplishments as a scholar and his management experience both inside and outside the university,” Ray said.

Williams’ scholarship is reflected by his membership in the National Academy of Engineering, his successes as dean of engineering at Carnegie-Mellon University and as a general manager at General Electric Aircraft Engines, and his selection and exceptional record as Ohio State’s Honda Professor of Materials.

“Jim’s experience as dean of engineering at Carnegie-Mellon University in the mid-1980s – coupled with his exceptional talents – will allow him to advance the agenda of the college in strong alignment with the university’s Academic Plan and will enable the college to continue on its path toward its goal of becoming one of the nation’s leading colleges of engineering,” Kirwan said.

Williams joined Ohio State in 1999 after spending 11 years at General Electric Aircraft Engines, most recently as general manager of the Materials and Process Engineering Department. Before that, he spent 13 years at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, serving as professor and dean of engineering, and president of the Mellon Institute. He also has worked at North American Rockwell Corp. and the Boeing Co.

Williams is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the 1992 ASM International Gold Medal, the 1993 Leadership Award from The Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society/American Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum Engineers (TMS/AIME), and selection in as a Fellow of both ASM International and TMS/AIME.

He has consulted widely for government and private industry, and is the author of more than 200 publications in his field of research, which focuses on structure-property relations of high-strength materials, performance of materials in extreme environments, materials processing, and technology policy, particularly as it pertains to materials and the management of high-technology organizations.

Williams is chair of the Materials Science and Technology Division Visiting Committee at Los Alamos National Laboratory, a member of the Engineering Division Advisory Board at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a member of the Advisory Committee of the Division of Engineering and Physical Science of the National Research Council, and a member of the Technology Advisory Board for the Carnegie Institute of Technology.

Williams received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in metallurgical engineering from the University of Washington.

###

(LO)