Dean

Jennifer Sinclair Curtis, Dean of the College of Engineering, has received the 2019 Particle Technology Forum’s Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). She is being recognized as an outstanding contributor to the field of particle technology as well as for her leadership in promoting scholarship, research, development, service and education in this field.

John D. Kemper, former dean of the College of Engineering, passed away on April 25 at age 93.

Kemper was the second dean of the College of Engineering, a position he held from 1969 until 1983 during a period of growth and development for the campus and college. During his tenure as dean, the college doubled in size, from 1,040 to 2,110 students, and added new graduate and undergraduate programs, including computer science and aeronautical engineering.

Updated 12:45 p.m. April 30: The family announced a celebration of life will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday, May 20, at the Buehler Alumni Center.

Professor Emeritus and former Dean Bruce R. White, a pioneer in environmental wind engineering who saved the San Francisco Giants from a design disaster at AT&T Park, died April 25 after a brief illness. He was 69.

DAVIS, CA­­­; July 8, 2015–Jennifer Sinclair Curtis has been named as the Dean of the UC Davis College of Engineering effective October 19, 2015.  Curtis currently serves as the Associate Dean for Research and Facilities at the University of Florida’s College of Engineering.  She will replace Interim Dean Jean VanderGheynst who graciously agreed to serve effective July 1, 2015, in the wake of former 

DAVIS, CA­­­; July 8, 2015–Jennifer Sinclair Curtis has been named as the Dean of the UC Davis College of Engineering effective October 19, 2015.  Curtis currently serves as the Associate Dean for Research and Facilities at the University of Florida’s College of Engineering.  She will replace Interim Dean Jean VanderGheynst who graciously agreed to serve effective July 1, 2015, in the wake of former 

In 1961, after the Bay of Pigs invasion when approximately 1,200 prisoners were held hostage in Cuba, Fidel Castro offered a trade with the United States: He would release most of the captives in exchange for 500 tractors. To negotiate this famous “Tractors for Prisoners” trade, an “unofficial” group of U.S. delegates was sent to Havana — “unofficial” to support the federal government’s claim that it hadn’t been involved in the invasion.

Some people simply aren’t allowed to retire.

After having served as dean of the UC Davis College of Engineering from 1983 to 1996, Mohammed S. Ghausi probably felt that it was time to relax. No such luck: Then-Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef pulled Ghausi back into the UC Davis fold for an additional year, to simultaneously serve as interim Vice Chancellor for Research, Dean of Graduate Studies and Vice Provost for University Outreach.

When Alan Laub accepted his position as the fourth dean of the UC Davis College of Engineering in October 1996, he demonstrated a talent for prescience:

“Just as the physical sciences have formed the cornerstone of engineering in the 20th century,” he said, “the biological, computational and information sciences will play an equally fundamental role in the 21st century.”

Bruce White knows San Francisco better than most people who live there.

His knowledge is specialized, though; mostly, the UC Davis professor of mechanical and aeronautical engineering understands what ruffles a San Franciscan’s feathers.