APNE Chairman Selected to be New Engineering Dean

Columbia Daily Spectator, Volume CV, Number 155, 4 November 1981
By ROB POLNER

The chairman of the department of applied physics and nuclear engineering has been named dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

The selection of the chairman, Robert Gross, was the culmination of a survey of nearly 200 candidates.

The appointment was approved Monday by the board of Trustees at its regular monthly meeting. Gross, a professor here for 21 years who heads the Plasma Physics Laboratory, will take the position in January.

Gross said he would continue to teach classes and conduct research as dean. "I consider this just taking on some additional administrative responsibilities," he said last night.

He added he would now begin an "intense self-education process to learn more about what the dean can and should do."

Gross was selected by a 10-member search committee chaired by Acting Dean Ralph Schwarz, who will resume his position as vice dean of the engineering school next semester.

Gross, 54, founded the Plasma Physics Laboratory, a research center devoted to the development of fusion energy, when he came to Columbia in 1960. He is the Percy and Vida Hudson Professor of Applied Physics.

He is the 12th dean of the engineering school, which has 1,750 students.