The Interim Chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department, Professor Frank Fisher, has decided to step down after serving for five years.
In spring 2018, Dean Jean Zu, Dean of the Schaefer School of Engineering & Science, opened a search to find a permanent chair for the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Professor Frank Fisher, a prominent member of the department, had served as interim chair for the past five years. Fisher was also a candidate for the position and was heavily supported by many of the department’s student leaders and faculty. The first round of the search process started near the end of the spring 2018 semester, and it resulted in multiple internal and external candidates under consideration. During this process, candidates submitted resumes, completed online interviews, met with people in the department, and finalists, which included Fisher, were invited to give presentations on campus. At the end of this process, no candidate was chosen to become the permanent department chair.
Dean Zu said that support was somewhat split between the various candidates; however, her decision was primarily motivated by a belief that an even better candidate could be found through expanding the search process further. She said that she did not want to continue with the “same old same old,” and that it was time to bring in a new chair with new ideas who could raise the department to a higher level of excellence. After the search came to a close, with a mutual decision from Dean Zu and Professor Fisher, Fisher stepped down as Interim Chair for the Mechanical Engineering Department after he was not chosen for the position of permanent department chair. Professor Soran Manoochehri was appointed in his place.
Professor Fisher said that he was surprised by Dean Zu’s decision to continue the search. However, he recognized that department chairs usually only last about five years, and that new ideas entering the department will ensure a bright future. He also stated that there is a silver lining in the decision as he will now have a chance to focus on teaching and research, which are the reasons he came to Stevens in the first place. Many students had positive reviews about Frank Fisher. “Frank Fisher always keeps his door open in Carnegie welcoming any student in. Every time I’ve had a question about anything Mechanical Engineering-related, he answered quickly with great thought and consideration,” said an undergraduate in the Mechanical Engineering Department.
Professor Manoochehri is one of the most senior members of the Mechanical Engineering Department. When he was asked to serve as interim chair, he saw it as his responsibility to accept. He was also a member of the original search committee, and agreed with Dean Zu that “throughout that search, it came to the point that really no single candidate stood out.” In addition to his seniority, he said that in prior years he has handled certain responsibilities that would typically fall to the department chair, such as hiring new faculty, making him a natural candidate for the interim chair.
A second search for candidates is already underway. Dean Zu said that the focus is on hiring an external candidate and that a few promising candidates are already being reviewed. However, she could provide no additional information about them. The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Civil, Environmental & Ocean Engineering both replaced their chairs with external hires recently, and Dean Zu stated that this largely motivated her decision. She also said that searching for an external candidate added a certain degree of difficulty, since chosen candidates would then need to be convinced to relocate to Stevens. Dean Zu did not provide a time frame in which a permanent chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department would be hired.
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