Lawrence Larson resigns as dean of the Brown School of Engineering

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CAUTION, RI [Brown University] – Lawrence E. Larson, the first dean of Brown University’s School of Engineering, who led its dramatic growth in its first decade, will step down as dean, effective June 30, 2022, to serve as a faculty member on the Brown Faculty Return research.

During his tenure as dean, Larson led a major expansion of the tenure-track engineering faculty, a significant increase in external research funding, the creation of new graduate programs, and the development of a state-of-the-art research and teaching facility. University Professor Richard M. Locke said that when Larson retires as dean, he is leaving an indelible legacy to the university.

“Larry exceeded all expectations and established the fledgling School of Engineering as a leader in the field,” said Locke. “As Provost for the past six years, I have been honored to work closely with Larry and have been impressed with his leadership – his intellectual brilliance, collaborative vision, and commitment to excellence. He leaves a lasting legacy and I couldn’t be more grateful. “

Infinite Possibility, a student-designed sundial sculpture, was placed on the lawn in front of Brown’s new Engineering Research Center in 2019.

Larson joined Brown in 2011, less than a year after the previous Division of Engineering expanded into the School of Engineering. He was a pioneering researcher in the field of microelectronics and wireless communications and was chairman of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California at San Diego. At Brown, he was tasked with directing the transition of the Ivy League’s oldest engineering program to a full-fledged engineering school with impactful research and teaching programs.

During his decade-long tenure, Larson helped raise more than $ 150 million for School of Engineering projects, including the award-winning Engineering Research Center, a 90,000-square-foot research and teaching space that opened its doors in 2017 to help design the role Design and build the facility to ensure it meets the needs of 21NS Century engineer researcher.

“Much of the last century engineering has focused on the macro scale – rockets, bridges and giant machines,” said Larson at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new facility in 2015. “But today engineers are increasingly working on the scale of a few atoms. Research on the nanoscale requires entirely new types of facilities, devices and spaces. “

Image of a research laboratory
The state-of-the-art laboratories of the ERC enable research in the engineering research of the 21st century.

The ERC has 20 laboratory modules to support research groups, two state-of-the-art clean rooms and an electron microscopy suite. The spaces are designed to support longstanding and emerging research strengths in the school, including the Institute for Molecular and Nanoscale Innovation, the Center for Biomedical Engineering, the Superfund Research Program Center, and a dynamic fluid mechanics research group.

Larson also oversaw a 40 percent increase in the number of tenure-track engineering schools, which is now the largest in its history. The new faculty members are expanding research in important growth areas such as biomedical and environmental technology and strengthening the long-standing strengths in mechanical engineering, electrical and information technology, process engineering and materials science. External research funding has almost doubled in the past 10 years and now stands at around $ 24 million annually.

Increased support for doctoral students and social engagement

Larson is committed to working directly with donors to support the school and his fundraising efforts helped establish nine new endowed professorships as well as expanded graduate and postdoctoral fellowships.

“Larry is such an open and friendly leader who fits so smoothly into engineering that it’s easy to forget how far he has led the school since 2010,” said Rod Beresford, an engineering professor who has been with Brown University since 1990 is. “As a true collaborative academic, Larry immediately understood the unique mix of dedicated learners, multidisciplinary projects, and engineering consensus-building at Brown. Nothing about that has changed, but we’ve made huge strides that many thought unlikely at the time, particularly in fundraising, building faculties and doing their research, expanding into a fantastic new facility, and attracting a larger and more diverse stream of PhD students. “

During Larson’s tenure, the school’s graduate programs doubled and he oversaw the creation of three new master’s degrees in technology leadership, engineering, and data-driven computing and science. Other student-centered projects included the creation of the Brown Design Workshop, a premier makerspace in the Prince Lab that has nearly 1,000 regular users from all over the campus and community. It now serves as the hub for our joint Masters program with the Rhode Island School of Design and as a focus for undergraduate instruction for a wide range of programs across campus, including engineering, computer science, theater arts, and others.

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