MIT’s head of materials science and engineering named dean of engineering at Rice

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MIT’s head of materials science and engineering named dean of engineering at Rice
Thomas led No. 1-ranked materials science department

Edwin “Ned” Thomas, the chair of the country’s No. 1-ranked Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), will become dean of Rice University’s George R. Brown School of Engineering July 1.

Both a materials scientist and a mechanical engineer, Thomas has spent the past 22 years on the MIT faculty. MIT’s School of Engineering and Department of Materials Science and Engineering have been ranked No. 1 by U.S. News and World Report all 22 years.

“I’m thrilled to welcome to Rice someone of Ned’s accomplishments and proven leadership at the world’s top-ranked engineering school,” Rice Provost George McLendon said. “Ned has interdisciplinary vision and understands the value of cultivating more collaboration between engineering, the sciences and other disciplines at Rice.”

As MIT’s Morris Cohen Professor of Materials Science and Engineering since 1989, Thomas has worked with electrical engineers and physicists on photonics and nanostructure fabrication and has collaborated with synthetic polymer chemists, chemical engineers and mechanical engineers.

In 2002 he founded MIT’s Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN), which has received more than $11 million in annual funding and involves some 60 faculty members from 12 departments. Thomas said research at the ISN benefits servicemen and women, such as by developing lightweight gear that can help reduce the 100-pound loads in their backpacks when they’re climbing the mountains in Iraq and Afghanistan and creating a device that can remotely “sniff” for TNT so that humans don’t have to risk their lives getting close to bombs.

Author of the textbook The Structure of Materials, Thomas said he’s also a fan of “practical engineering” and has 14 patents, three of which are licensed to a company he co-founded – OmniGuide – that specializes in revolutionary minimally invasive CO2 surgery. A “perfect mirror” discovered by Thomas and one of his students is employed in flexible, hollow-core photonic fibers for laser surgical applications for endoscopic procedures.

His research in polymeric materials is well-known and respected worldwide. Thomas served as director of MIT’s Program in Polymer Science and Technology and as deputy director of the MIT Microphotonics Center prior to being named head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in 2006.

Coming from a department with a research budget of $35 million, 32 faculty members, 225 graduate students, 140 undergraduates and 83 postdocs, Thomas said that Rice’s Brown School of Engineering is “the right size.”

“I’ll be able to remember the names and faces of everyone on the faculty,” he said. Like scouts in sports who can spot players with talent, Thomas said he has “a good gene” for finding talented people. “I’ve been successful at helping people who are really good get even better, get promoted and get tenure.”

Thomas said colleagues have asked why he’s leaving the top-ranked materials science department. “At Rice, there’s a chance to move the university forward. It’s in my DNA to try to lead and make things better, and this is a great opportunity to do that,” he said. “I think I can take the School of Engineering in a new direction, and I’m eager to give it a shot.”

He views himself as a catalyst and likes to give young faculty “really hard problems,” he said. “The harder the problem, the more interested they are.” And that factors into why engineering is central to society.

“Many really critical problems need passionate, well-educated, innovative and versatile engineers to solve them,” he said, “and leading the George R. Brown School of Engineering at Rice will certainly be a great opportunity to help make this happen.”

In addition to his role as dean, Thomas will be the William and Stephanie Sick Chair and a professor in both the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

“Ned will be a terrific addition to our leadership team at Rice, and we welcome his breadth of perspective,” President David Leebron said. “With his broad experience and record of accomplishments, he’s just the right person to lead our engineering school to even higher levels of achievement in teaching, research and reputation.”

Prior to joining the faculty at MIT, Thomas served on the chemical engineering faculty at the University of Minnesota and then as chair of the Polymer Science and Engineering Department at the University of Massachusetts. In 2009 he was elected to both the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has a B.S. in mechanical engineering and engineering science from the University of Massachusetts and a Ph.D. in materials science from Cornell.

Born and raised in Massachusetts, Thomas said he will remain a Red Sox fan after he moves to Houston. Thomas and his wife of 40 years, Dee, have three daughters and three grandsons.

Thomas will succeed Sidney Burrus, who has served as interim dean of engineering since Sept. 1, 2010.

“I am truly delighted at the appointment of Professor Ned Thomas as dean of engineering at Rice,” Burrus said. “His experience, stature and vision are attributes that will enable him to make a significant contribution to both the George R. Brown School and the greater Rice community. I look forward to a smooth transition and an exciting future.”

Both McLendon and Leebron expressed their gratitude for Burrus’ leadership during the search for a new dean. “It was very generous of Sid to come out of retirement for almost a year while we conducted a national search for the dean of engineering, and we thank him profusely,” McLendon said.

Burrus also served as Rice’s dean of engineering from 1998 to 2005. He will remain on the faculty as the Maxfield and Oshman Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering.