Ralph S. Quatrano, PhD, dean of the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis, has announced that he will step down as dean at the end of the academic year, June 30, 2015, according to Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton.
Quatrano, who previously served as dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences, has been dean of the engineering school since July 2010.
After a yearlong sabbatical beginning in July 2015, Quatrano will resume his position as the Spencer T. Olin Professor of Biology in Arts & Sciences.
“Under Ralph’s leadership, the School of Engineering & Applied Science has experienced great success in a number of important areas, including faculty recruitment and sponsored research activities,” Wrighton said.
“In addition, he has laid out an innovative and far-reaching plan for the school’s expansion, which includes development in the near future of Jubel Hall. I have no doubt that history will show that the last four and a half years have been an era of strategic and thoughtful growth.”
“It has been a privilege and honor to lead the School of Engineering & Applied Science, and I am grateful for the support and dedication of so many people who helped to build what is an even stronger engineering school today,” Quatrano said.
“Thanks to the faculty and staff’s unwavering commitment to excellence, especially the dean’s staff, and the university administration’s support for additional faculty and buildings, these years have been very exciting times, and the future is bright.
“We have more work to do during the months ahead, but the school is well positioned for new leadership to continue the momentum building closer relationships with other schools, both at Washington University and other institutions, and making stronger connections between engineering and other disciplines.”
Designed school’s strategic plan
As dean, Quatrano has designed and is implementing the school’s ambitious strategic plan, which focuses on creating interdisciplinary collaboration across departments and schools and with other institutions, growing the faculty and student populations, completing the new engineering complex, and developing academic programs to prepare engineers for leading in the 21st century.
He has hired one-third of the current tenured and tenure-track faculty, including two department chairs, and has built a sustainable research infrastructure across all levels of the faculty that has enabled research programs to expand and succeed. During the past year alone, research awards increased by more than 25 percent.
Recognizing the university’s priority for a diverse faculty, Quatrano has increased the number of women faculty by 40 percent as well as hired African-American and Hispanic faculty members.
Under his leadership, student enrollment has increased by 20 percent, creating the school’s largest-ever undergraduate and graduate classes. He also revitalized the Dual Degree Program, which is at its highest enrollment in 20 years.
Among other highlights of his tenure, Quatrano has helped build and expand graduate education, including professional master’s programs such as the master of cyber security management and an interdisciplinary doctoral program in materials science and engineering. Under his leadership, 13 new graduate and undergraduate academic programs have been developed.
With the goal of promoting the application of new discoveries by enhancing the culture of entrepreneurism, Quatrano created the Discovery Competition, an annual competition that gives undergraduate students the opportunity to develop solutions for real-world problems and to compete for $25,000 to help turn their ideas into businesses.
Preston M. Green Hall, the third building of the new engineering complex, was built during his tenure and plans are underway for the fourth building, Henry A. & Elvira H. Jubel Hall.
Also during Quatrano’s time as dean, nearly $60 million has been raised as part of Leading Together: The Campaign for Washington University.
Strong leader, researcher
Quatrano joined Washington University in 1998 as chair of the Department of Biology and the Spencer T. Olin Professor of Biology in Arts & Sciences. He previously had been chair of the biology department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Internationally known for his plant science work, Quatrano was one of the earliest investigators to apply the tools of molecular biology to the study of gene expression. He continues to apply the tools of genomics and systems biology to the study of drought tolerance in plants.
In addition to serving as biology chair, he was director from 2005-07 of WUSTL’s Division of Biology & Biomedical Sciences, a university-wide consortium including medical, engineering and science programs.
During a decade as biology chair, Quatrano recruited approximately one-third of the current active faculty. Following his tenure as chair, he accepted a yearlong position as interim dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences in July 2008.
He also took a leadership role in a consortium of more than 100 international researchers and the Joint Genome Institute of the Department of Energy to sequence and annotate the moss genome. This effort resulted in the first non-vascular plant sequence and has had great impact on the study of the evolution of genes and gene networks in land plants. The work culminated in a major publication in 2008 in Science with Quatrano as corresponding author.
The author of more than 160 published research papers, Quatrano has given invited seminars at institutions worldwide. He has won teaching awards at the undergraduate and graduate levels and has mentored 20 graduate students and 40 postdoctoral fellows and visiting scientists.
He was editor-in-chief for five years of the journal The Plant Cell, the premier journal of plant biology; president of the American Society of Plant Biologists; a member of the Advisory Committee for Biological Sciences Directorate for the National Science Foundation; on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Rockefeller Foundation International Program on Rice Biotechnology; and on the Board of Reviewing Editors for Science Magazine, the publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
He is a fellow of the AAAS and the Academy of Science of St. Louis as well as an inaugural fellow of the American Society of Plant Biologists.
A search committee to identify Quatrano’s successor will be announced soon.