Lewis Duncan to lead nation's oldest professional School of Engineering

Posted 04/29/98

Lewis M. Duncan, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of Tulsa, has been appointed dean of Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering. Duncan is also a professor of engineering physics at the University of Tulsa.

In making the announcement Dartmouth President James O. Freedman said, "Lewis Duncan is a wonderful choice for the next dean of the Thayer School. His stature as a scientist and his outstanding record of service and academic leadership are very much in tune with Thayer School's research strengths and its commitment to an engineering education grounded in the liberal arts."

Duncan succeeds Charles E. Hutchinson, who served as dean for eleven years and is now Thayer School's Krehbiel Professor for Emerging Technologies. "I am very pleased to have someone with Duncan's academic accomplishments, administrative experience, and personal integrity coming to Thayer School," Hutchinson said. "I know he will lead us forward with vision and skill."

Duncan, who has been a researcher in plasma physics for more than 20 years, has served as a principal investigator for numerous projects funded by the federal government, private industry and foundations. His field, radio physics, has wide applications in remote sensing and telecommunications, including experimental studies using rockets, radar and satellites. Duncan has also conducted public policy research in nuclear non-proliferation, international security studies and environmental assessment.

"It is a tremendous honor and privilege to join the Thayer School of Engineering and the greater Dartmouth College academic community," Duncan said. "The Thayer School is truly distinguished by its outstanding faculty, extraordinary students, dedicated staff and strongly supportive alumni and friends. I am excited by the opportunities to further build upon and promote the Dartmouth difference -- engineers well prepared for lifelong learning, technological leadership and societal service, liberally educated within a research environment of the highest national quality."

Duncan received his bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics (1973) and his doctorate in space physics (1977) from Rice University. He was a National Science Foundation post-doctoral fellow, conducting research at the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, then joined the Los Alamos National Laboratory, first as a research scientist and then as a section head in the Division of Earth and Space Sciences. He was a Carnegie Science Fellow at Stanford from 1987 to 1988.

After joining the faculty of Clemson University in 1988, he served as associate dean for the College of the Sciences and special assistant to the vice president for research. He was the founding director of the South Carolina Space Grant Consortium, and is a fellow in the Thurmond Institute of Government and Public Affairs.

Duncan came to the University of Tulsa in 1993. He has been dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, acting president of the university and is a fellow in the National Energy-Environment Law and Policy Institute.

During his tenure at Tulsa he was recognized with the first annual award for service to the university's student association, which named the award after him. He led efforts in strategic planning, curriculum reform and international programs, and oversaw initiatives in academic computing, student research participation and interdisciplinary studies.

Duncan will assume his new position at Thayer School in July.

Founded in 1867, the Thayer School is the nation's oldest professional school of engineering. Its interdisciplinary programs, conducted by 35 full-time faculty members, serve approximately 375 undergraduate engineering students and approximately 140 graduate students pursuing professional and research degrees through the doctorate (B.E., M.E.M, M.S., Ph.D.). Engineering Sciences is the fifth most popular undergraduate major at Dartmouth and the largest science major.

Sponsored research awards at the Thayer School are expected to total approximately $6 million during the current academic year. Research areas include biomedical, mechanical, electrical, computer, and environmental engineering; biotechnology, materials and applied science. Thayer School's faculty has garnered six of the prestigious National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator awards over the last decade.