Dr. Costas Tsatsoulis, vice chancellor for research and dean of graduate studies, announces some changes in the research leadership of S&T. 

Dr. Genda Chen will lead the Center for Intelligent Infrastructure (CII), a newly established University Research Center. Chen is professor and Robert W. Abbett Distinguished Chair in Civil Engineering.

The proposal for the center states: “The mission of the proposed Center is to become Missouri S&T’s research and education conduit for intelligent physical infrastructures, when overlaid by cyber infrastructure, to achieve their sustainability, safety, and resilience under environmental, operational, and extreme loads. The research focus of the center lies in the integration of automation, informatics, and actuation into the life-cycle assessment, performance prediction, risk analysis, and post-disaster recovery of cyber-physical systems through open-source, cloud-based hybrid simulations between multi-scale modeling and robot-assisted instrumentation.”

“I am looking forward to the growth of this new University Research Center as it builds strong collaborative relationships with our other URCs and with faculty across campus,” Tsatsoulis says. “In addition to the new URC, we welcomed some leadership changes in four of our University Research Centers.”

Dr. Richard Brow now serves as director of the Center for Biomedical Research (CBR). He served as interim director of the center for two years. Brow is a Curator’s Distinguished Professor of ceramic engineering and interim deputy provost for academic excellence.

Dr. Norbert Maerz, director of the Rock Mechanics and Explosives Research Center, will retire. Dr. Andreas Eckert, associate professor of geosciences and geological and petroleum engineering, will lead the center.

Dr. Phil Whitefield, director of the Center for Research in Energy and the Environment (CREE) will retire. Dr. Jonathan Kimball, professor of electrical and computer engineering, will serve as interim director of the center.

Dr. Kate Drowne recently became interim dean of the College of Arts, Sciences, and Business, and has stepped down as director of the Center for Science, Technology, and Society (CSTS). Dr. Kristine Swenson, professor of English and technical communication, will serve as interim director of the center.