1:23 p.m., June 30, 2010----Babatunde Ogunnaike, William L. Friend Chair of Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware, has been named deputy dean of the UD College of Engineering, effective July 1.

THIS STORY

E-mail

Print

Twitter

As deputy dean, Ogunnaike replaces Thomas Buchanan, who has been appointed director of the Delaware Rehabilitation Institute.

“I'm honored to have been offered the opportunity to serve the college in this position, which is designed to help advance our research and partnership mission,” said Ogunnaike, who also has a faculty appointment in the Center for Systems Biology at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute.

“I look forward to working with the faculty, chairs, and center and institute directors in the college, as well as with other University administrators, in our push to increase the level and impact of research activity.”

Upon announcing the appointment, engineering dean Michael Chajes referred to Ogunnaike as an outstanding scholar and mentor.

“In addition, he brings substantial industrial experience from his career with DuPont,” Chajes said. “These skills and experiences will allow him to lead the college in expanding its multidisciplinary research activities both across campus and through outside partnerships. His extensive international experience will be critical as we forge new global collaborations.”

Ogunnaike earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Lagos in Nigeria in 1976 and a master's degree in statistics and a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of Wisconsin Madison in 1981. He joined UD in the fall of 2002 after a 13-year research career with DuPont.

Ogunnaike has won a number of awards, including the Donald P. Eckman Education Award from ISA, an international organization involved in instrumentation, systems and automation, in 2007. In 2008, he received the American Automatic Control Council's Control Engineering Practice Award. He also has received the College of Engineering's Excellence in Teaching Award.

The author or editor of four books and more than 75 papers and book chapters, Ogunnaike has served as associate editor of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, and he is associate editor of the American Chemical Society's Industrial & Engineering Chemistry.

He has delivered more than 100 seminars at universities, conferences, symposia, and companies, and his textbooks have been used to educate and train thousands of engineers in instrumentation, systems, and control at more than 29 universities.

Article by Diane Kukich