C.U. Names Interim Engineering Dean

The University announced yesterday that Prof. Christopher Ober, material science and engineering, will serve as interim dean of the College of Engineering, succeeding current dean Kent Fuchs, who was selected last month to become Cornell provost at the start of next year.
“[Ober] is an exemplary leader and faculty member at Cornell,” Interim Provost David Harris stated in a press release. “He is well respected by his peers and he is known for attention to detail. He will be deft in running the College of Engineering while the University proceeds in the dean search.”
Ober will serve as the interim dean until the University finds a permanent replacement for Fuchs.
“We plan to move the search forward expeditiously as we seek to identify and recruit an outstanding dean to build on the college’s exceptional process,” Vice Provost John Siliciano stated yesterday in an e-mail. “The search will be national in scope, considering promising candidates both from within the University and beyond.”
Siliciano, who will chair the search committee to find a permanent replacement for Fuchs, pledged to seek the input of staff, students, senior administrators and alumni during the search.
Ober has served as associate dean for research and graduate studies in the College of Engineering since 2007, according to a University press release. Previously, he served as director of and professor in the Department of Material and Science and Engineering. Ober first joined the Cornell faculty as an assistant professor in 1986.