H. Vincent Poor
Photo: John Jameson
H. Vincent Poor, a Princeton alumnus and professor of electrical
engineering known worldwide as a distinguished researcher, teacher and
innovator, has been named dean of the University's School of Engineering and Applied Science, effective June 1.
Poor will succeed Maria Klawe, who announced in January that she will
leave Princeton to become president of Harvey Mudd College in
California. Klawe led the engineering school through an important
strategic planning effort and into a period of major growth.
"Vince Poor exemplifies all the qualities we seek in a Princeton
professor: He combines world-class scholarship with a true dedication
and gift for teaching," said President Shirley M. Tilghman. "Both of
these qualities -- along with his great personal warmth -- will serve
him and Princeton well as the engineering school moves ahead with its
very exciting vision for engineering research and education."
"I am thrilled to be taking on this role and am honored that my
colleagues and the University administration have entrusted it to me,"
said Poor. "The engineering school is on the threshold of great things.
Maria's leadership in creating a vision for the school -- and the way
that the faculty have rallied around that vision -- set the groundwork
for taking the school to a new, even higher level."
"We're moving full-speed ahead," he added.
Poor earned
bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from Auburn
University, and completed a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and
computer science at Princeton in 1977. Currently the Michael Henry
Strater University Professor of Electrical Engineering,
he joined the Princeton faculty in 1990 after 13 years at the
University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign. He also has held visiting
positions at a number of other institutions, including Imperial College
(London), Harvard and Stanford.
In 2005, Klawe appointed Poor to be the founding director of the Center for Innovation in Engineering Education,
an initiative to prepare all students -- both engineers and
non-engineers -- to be leaders in an increasingly technology-driven
society. As center director, he led a group of 10 faculty members from
seven departments in creating an alternative freshman engineering
curriculum that integrates math, physics and hands-on engineering
projects into a unified course series.
Through the center and his own teaching, Poor also has emphasized the
need to engage non-engineering students in courses that examine
technological issues that shape and are shaped by society. In 2000, he
created a course called "The Wireless Revolution," which explores the
technical, social and economic dimensions of wireless communications.
The course quickly became one of the most popular on campus with
enrollments of more than 200 students.
The National Science Foundation recognized Poor's contributions in
2002, presenting him with the Director's Award for Distinguished
Teaching Scholars, the foundation's highest honor for excellence in
both teaching and research. He received the engineering school's
Distinguished Teaching Award in 2003 and the Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Education Medal in 2005.
Poor also has maintained a very active research program. In 2005, he
published a book, 25 journal articles and 26 conference papers. He
supervised nine graduate students and six postdoctoral researchers
working on 10 separately funded projects. He received two patents and
served as editor-in-chief of a leading journal, the IEEE Transactions
on Information Theory.
An elected member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow
of the IEEE, Poor is an authority on wireless communications and signal
processing. His graduate-level textbook, "An Introduction to Signal
Detection and Estimation," is considered the definitive reference in
its field. He is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences and a recent Guggenheim fellow.
As dean, Poor said a top priority will be to build on the core elements
of the school's strategic vision: setting a new standard for
engineering education with an emphasis on innovation and leadership;
and conducting cross-disciplinary research that has a major impact on
national and global problems.
Poor said he wants the school to leverage its already significant
collaborations with the broader University in areas such as biological
engineering, neuroscience, environmental science, materials science,
information technology policy, finance, architecture and music. "This
is happening already, but we want to make these collaborations as easy
as we can," he said.
"At the same time, we must maintain our emphasis on fundamental
research, which has been a hallmark of Princeton engineering," Poor
said.
It also is critical for the school to build its relations with industry
and government, both to provide a real-world context for education and
to maximize the impact of Princeton research in solving problems and
creating opportunities, Poor said. His own experience has included
consulting relationships with more than a dozen corporations and
government labs.
Tilghman's decision to appoint Poor followed three months of intensive
work by a nine-member search committee chaired by Sharad Malik, the
George Van Ness Lothrop Professor in Engineering, and including
representatives across engineering and the sciences. Malik said the
committee met with about 100 faculty members, students and
administrators, both from within and outside Princeton, and defined
three main qualities it was seeking: strong leadership, scholarship and
teaching.
"Vince clearly excels in all these qualities, and he has a great
openness and willingness to listen," said Malik. "Maria has done a
wonderful job uniting the school behind the strategic vision, and Vince
has the combination of skills that will maximize this momentum."
