Dean's Message
It is a great honor to be named the Dean of Engineering at Brown University. The responsibilities are tremendous and it is highly rewarding knowing my colleagues and the administration are confident in my leadership abilities to continue to grow the Division of Engineering in new and exciting directions. I am taking on this new position with immense energy and enthusiasm and with high hopes and lofty dreams for the future of Brown Engineering. My goals for the years ahead are grand and will leverage off and expand upon the Division’s greatest asset – the collective intellectual capabilities and creativities of the students, faculty, staff, and alumni to cultivate new education and research paradigms. My overarching theme for my tenure as Dean is to make Brown Engineering one of the most recognized engineering programs, both nationally and internationally, respected for its tangible contributions to society’s health and well being, and for the quality of its graduates and faculty.
The facilitation of new alliances and relationships between students, faculty, staff and alumni and the community by transcending traditional scholarly disciplines to create a truly innovative and dynamic teaching and research culture is a goal I have for the Division. Brown Engineering attracts a vibrant mix of students, from all walks of life and varied backgrounds, who are attracted to Brown for its liberal education. It is time to reflect on our curriculum, enhance the engineering, science, and design components, and implement new and innovative transformations to continue to attract the best and brightest students from around the globe. At the graduate level, I plan to cultivate a growing sense of community and camaraderie among graduate students across our disciplinary programs through innovative activities and coursework. Additionally, I wish to increase the number of Ph.D. graduate students and grow our Sc.M. programs. An example of this growth is the launch of our exciting new Sc.M. Program in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship (PRIME) Engineering in September. In terms of growing the research enterprise, the cultivation of new relationships and interactions both within engineering and with external partners – other academic departments, national and foreign universities, local hospitals, industry, etc. – is of paramount importance to my plan. I have already begun an aggressive campaign to bring physicians into engineering. My message revolves around a problem-selection paradigm, where physicians identify a need and engineering faculty identify an expertise and/or technology match. Furthermore, I wish to grow the Division’s interaction with industry through close collaborative research partnerships and recruiting relationships. I also wish to expand the Division’s visibility in research and education by launching an innovative newsletter and new website, practicing aggressive recruiting methods, and through support of alumni, with the overall goal of significantly improving our rankings and improving our national and international visibility.
As a faculty member in the Division for the past ten years, my research program can be summed up in one word – interdisciplinary. As a member of the Electrical Sciences and Computer Engineering group, my research background and expertise combines underlying principles of engineering, physics and materials science, with an impetus on display, photonic, and medical devices that solve a myriad of problems in healthcare, society, and the marketplace. Although known for my interest in applications and my emphasis on innovation, high technology and entrepreneurship in both the laboratory and classroom, I also engage very fundamental engineering science studies – most notably my interest in the confinement and imaging of complex fluids. My broad research background has served me well in the Division, an environment without traditional disciplinary boundaries, as I have personally grown in many new directions over the years. I take pride in the fact that I have published papers in archival journals with faculty members in each research group. I will never stopped learning. I am continuously challenged by and challenging my colleagues in new ways to open up unique and exciting research and teaching opportunities.
Coming from Xerox PARC ten years ago, I feel I was fortunate to begin my first professional engineering experience being trained in a truly innovative and intellectually challenging corporate research environment. I strongly believe in and live by the words of Robert Browning, who said “one’s reach should always exceed the grasp,” and Vince Lambardi’s response to this famous quote “…even if you do not reach the moon, you will perhaps grab a star or two.” Those who know me well know how passionate I am about entrepreneurship. I have used entrepreneurship as a platform to challenge students to have the courage to step into uncharted territories and the commitment to stay the course even when times get tough. I sometimes feel that I am as much of a coach as a professor. I plan to bring to bear these skills, attitudes and aspirations to the Deanship in shaping the Division’s research portfolio, balancing the great synergies between fundamental engineering science and application, and in the design and implementation of unique curricular developments which leverage off the rich liberal arts philosophy of Brown.
The Brown University Engineering program provides an atmosphere where students experience an extraordinarily challenging curriculum focused on fundamentals and the notion of a lifelong commitment to learning, all nestled in a liberal arts campus setting and a beautiful city rich in culture and history. In such a setting, I like to emphasize social responsibility and awareness of purpose, with the underlying philosophy that engineering is a helping profession much like education and medicine. I strongly believe we can ill-afford to train engineers in a narrow way. With world demographics undergoing radical changes and critical debates of our times dominating the headlines, such as those on energy, the environment, healthcare, socio-political conflicts, and catastrophic and man-made disasters, the world will be looking to individuals trained in the fundamental understanding of engineering and human nature to solve complex problems. Engineering of 2020 (National Academy of Engineering) boldly proclaims that the engineering degree will become the liberal arts degree in the future – a notion that I strongly believe in.
I am extraordinarily proud of the Division’s alumni; in fact, I am awestruck when I learn about their vast accomplishments around the world – from inventors, educators, professors, consultants, business professionals, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists, to executives in fast growing start-ups and Fortune 500 companies – they have done it all and have impacted the world view. They have been true ambassadors of our program, showing the world the power of a Brown Engineering degree. I have sincerely enjoyed my interactions with the alumni over the years and I look forward to bolstering these future interactions in my new capacity as Dean. The Brown Engineering alumni are an inspiring force and resource that should be leveraged and frequently called upon for support and guidance.
I hope this short statement gives you a sense about my background, philosophy, and vision. I certainly have my work cut out for me in ‘filling the shoes’ of my predecessors. Over the years, I have learned a great deal from their leadership and commitment to this fine university and division.
I look forward to working with you all in the future.
Gregory Crawford
Dean of Engineering
Brown University
August 2006
