US Senate confirms Clemson University engineering Dean Esin Gulari to National Science Board

Gulari is the first woman to serve as dean of Clemson University's College of Engineering and Science and its nearly 5,000 students. The college includes 14 academic departments, 23 undergraduate and 45 graduate degree programs and 11 research centers, including the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR).

Since coming to Clemson in June 2006, Gulari has created two new units within the college. The first is the School of Computing, which has the mission to prepare students for all aspects of computing as part of a universitywide emphasis on information technology and high-performance computing. The aim is to allow for rapid development of emerging, interdisciplinary research and academic programs. The department of engineering and science education is the second unit established and is designed to improve the educational methods and pedagogy of teaching science and engineering at the university level and to reach out to K-12 education with innovative strategies in math, science and engineering.

Prior to becoming dean, Gulari served as professor and chairwoman of the chemical engineering and materials science department at Wayne State University. She has private-sector experience having served as chief technology officer of nanoSEC, a startup company formed to manufacture and market nanocomposites produced using supercritical fluid processing.

From 2000 to 2004, Gulari served at the National Science Foundation, where she was director of the Chemical and Transport Systems Division in the Engineering Directorate, and during most of that time as acting assistant director for the Engineering Directorate.

Other National Science Board nominees include: France Córdova, president, Purdue University; Bud Peterson, chancellor, University of Colorado, Boulder; and Diane L. Souvaine, professor and chairwoman, department of computer science, Tufts University. The following board members were re-nominated to serve a second term: Barry Barish, professor of physics emeritus and director, LIGO Laboratory, California Institute of Technology; Ray Bowen, president emeritus, Texas A&M University; and Douglas Randall, professor and Thomas Jefferson Fellow, University of Missouri, Columbia.