BROOKINGS – Four finalists for the position of dean of the Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering will visit the South Dakota State University campus in the coming weeks.
Each candidate will spend one day interviewing and meeting with university leadership, deans, researchers, faculty, students and staff. There will be open forums for each candidate to engage with other key stakeholders, including community and university members.
The finalists are:
Makarand Hastak
Hastak has served as professor and head of construction engineering and management at Purdue University since January 2007 and has been involved with the construction industry for the past 30 years. He has conducted research and assisted industry in the area of construction engineering and management, including process improvement, disaster risk reduction, infrastructure management and strategic planning.
Hastak also served in leadership roles of national organizations, including the National Consortium of Housing Research, the ASCE Construction Research Congress and the Global Leadership Forum for Construction Engineering and Management Program. He has also served as editor-in-chief of the AACE Skills and Knowledge of Cost Engineering and the ASCE Journal of Management in Engineering.
Hastak earned his Ph.D. in civil engineering from Purdue University, a master’s degree in the same discipline from the University of Cincinnati and a bachelor’s, also in civil engineering, from Nagpur University in India.
Hastak will interview Friday. His public open forum will be from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in Pugsley Hall 214.
Abdollah Afjeh
Afjeh is also currently the director of college major initiatives for the College of Engineering at the University of Toledo, a position he has held since July 2014. He began his tenure at Toledo in 1989 as an associate professor, working his way to full professor in 1995. Since then, he has held numerous positions at the university, including being the director of graduate studies and the chair of the Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. He also holds the position of founding director of the Small Turbine Engine Institute, which is located within the same department.
Afjeh’s current areas of research include computational fluid dynamics in turbomachinery, propulsion systems, experimental investigation of bearing and rotating components, wind turbine design and aerodynamics of phonation. He was awarded the University Outstanding Research and Scholarship Award by Toledo in 2014 and was an American Society of Mechanical Engineers fellow in 2012.
Afjeh earned his Ph.D. and master’s in mechanical engineering from the University of Toledo, in addition to his bachelor’s in the same discipline from Aya Mehr University of Technology, now Sharif University of Technology, in Iran.
Afjeh will interview Monday. His public open forum will be from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in Pugsley Hall 214.
Vernon Schaefer
Schaefer was named the first-ever Hoover Professor in 2004. He also holds the title of interim director for the Center for Earthworks Engineering Research within the Institute of Transportation.
Schaefer came to Iowa State from South Dakota State University, where he was department head for civil and environmental engineering. He has 31 years of teaching, research and administrative experience in academia to go along with three years of consulting engineering practice.
Schaefer’s research has covered varieties of geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering areas, mostly in landslides and slope stability, ground improvement, earth retention systems, engineering behavior of overconsolidated clays and clay shales, glacial till permeability, geotechnical aspects of pavement systems and geotechnical asset management.
Schaefer has a Ph.D. in civil engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, a master’s degree in civil engineering from Iowa State and a bachelor’s degree in the same discipline from South Dakota State University.
Schaefer will interview April 13. His public open forum will be from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in Pugsley Hall 214.
Bruce Berdanier
Berdanier has served as dean of engineering at Fairfield University since July 2013.
As the chief academic officer for the school, he has led the development of a new bachelor’s degree in bioengineering, relocation of the computer science program from the College of Arts and Sciences and the development of multiple five-year bachelor’s and master’s degree options. Berdanier has raised external funding for multiple projects, including a new machine laboratory, a materials characterization laboratory, a network system lab and the development of an applied research laboratory.
Prior to Fairfield, Berdanier was a professor and department head for civil and environmental engineering at South Dakota State University. He has also held positions of associate professor at Ohio Northern University and assistant professor at South Dakota School of Mines. Berdanier was an owner of Village Engineering Ltd., from 1991 through 2007.
Berdanier has his Ph.D., in environmental engineering and hydrogeology from Ohio State University and a master’s in environmental engineering from Purdue University. He earned his bachelor’s in water resources from Ohio State.
Berdanier will interview April 18. His public open forum will be from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in Pugsley Hall 214.
