AMES, Iowa -- Mark J. Kushner, Founder Professor of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will become dean of Iowa State University's College of Engineering effective Jan. 1, 2005.
He replaces Dean James Melsa, who will retire June 30. Provost Ben Allen will appoint an interim dean next week.
Kushner also will be the inaugural holder of the James L. and Katherine S. Melsa Professorship.
"Dr. Kushner brings exceptional leadership skills and broad experience to our College of Engineering," said Iowa State University President Gregory Geoffroy. "He is an internationally known researcher in the study of plasmas, laser physics and spectroscopy, and he has an outstanding record as an administrator whose focus is on academic excellence and student achievement. We're delighted that he is joining Iowa State."
Kushner has held various engineering roles at Illinois since 1986, including assistant dean of academic programs, interim associate dean of administrative affairs, and interim head of electrical and computer engineering and chemical and biomolecular engineering.
His industrial experience includes one year as a physicist at Sandia National Laboratory, Albuquerque, N.M.; two years as a physicist, Advanced Lasers and Laser Isotope Separation Programs, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, Calif.; and three years as principal research scientist and director of electron, atomic and molecular physics, Spectra Technology, Inc., Bellevue, Wash.
Kushner holds three patents. He earned his doctoral (1979) and master's (1977) degrees in applied physics from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. He earned bachelor's degrees in nuclear engineering and astronomy from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1976.
