Professor A. Richard
Newton appointed new dean of UC Berkeley's College of Engineering
30
Jun 2000
By
Kathleen Scalise, Media Relations
Berkeley
- A. Richard Newton, a Silicon Valley innovator and chair of
the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences
(EECS) in the University of California, Berkeley's College of
Engineering, has been named to succeed Paul R. Gray as dean
of the highly-ranked engineering college.
Newton,
a prominent researcher in the design of electronic circuits
and systems, is expected to assume the deanship on July 1, 2000.
The appointment is pending approval by the UC Board of Regents.
In
making the announcement today (Friday, June 30), UC Berkeley
Vice Provost Nicolas P. Jewell, who steps down from this position
tomorrow to return to his professorship in biostatistics, said,
"Rich Newton is the ideal candidate for our new dean of engineering.
He has an outstanding academic record in research and is a superb
classroom teacher. He also has the ability to continue leading
the college forward in exciting new directions, particularly
through his visibility among high technology leaders and others
in Silicon Valley."
Newton,
48, will become the 11th dean of the engineering college, which
descended from three of the original colleges of the University
of California, founded in 1868.
Born
in Australia, Newton received his PhD from UC Berkeley in 1978.
He also holds a bachelor's and master's degree in engineering
science from the University of Melbourne, Australia.
"This
is a critical time for engineering as a profession, as we come
to grips with what it really means to be an engineer in a world
where recent developments in new materials, information technology,
nanoscale systems and the biological sciences are reshaping
our approach to almost everything we do," Newton said.
"With
a truly distinguished faculty, with the best students of any
engineering program in the world, and situated on a campus where
every department is ranked in the top ten in the nation, Berkeley
has a unique opportunity to combine the benefits of science
and technology with the skills and understanding of our colleagues
throughout the campus and in industry to solve many of society's
most critical problems," he said.
Newton
joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1979. He served as vice chairman
of the EECS department from 1985 to 1988, and as chair in the
1999-2000 school year.
Paul
R. Gray, who will become UC Berkeley's executive vice chancellor
and provost on July 1 after four years as dean of the engineering
college, said Newton "brings tremendous energy and a creative,
entrepreneurial spirit to the job of leading the College of
Engineering at UC Berkeley. While technology is changing society,
society's needs are shaping new technologies across many disciplines.
Richard is an excellent choice to keep Berkeley at the forefront
of engineering research and education."
Newton
is the founding director of the MARCO/DDR&E Gigascale Silicon
Research Center, a nine-university, industry/government-funded
research consortium charged with undertaking the long-range
research needed to keep the United States competitive in the
design of complex integrated electronic systems.
He
is also a member of the Technical Advisory Board to Microsoft
Research Laboratories and has acted as a venture partner with
the Mayfield Fund, a high-technology venture capital partnership.
He has helped found a number of design technology companies,
including SDA Systems and PIE Design Systems (both now are part
of Cadence Design Systems), as well as Simplex Solutions and
Synopsys, where he rejoined the board of directors in 1994.
He was also a founder and director of Crossbow Technology, Inc.,
a leading producer of MEMS-based embedded measurement sensor
and control subsystems, and was acting president and CEO of
Silicon Light Machines, which is bringing to market a number
of display systems based on a new technology of micromachined
silicon light-valves.
A
fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
(IEEE), Newton has published extensively in his field and received
numerous awards and honors, including best paper awards from
the ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference, the International
Conference on Computer Design, the European Solid State Circuits
Conference and the IEEE Transactions for Computer-Aided Design
of Integrated Circuits and Systems.
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