The University of Waterloo named an award-winning professor and accomplished researcher as its new dean of engineering.
WATERLOO, Ont. (Monday, Jan. 23, 2012) - The University of Waterloo named an award-winning professor and accomplished researcher as its new dean of engineering.
Professor Pearl Sullivan is currently the chair of the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at Waterloo. She joined the university as a professor of mechanical engineering in 2004.
"The exemplary reputation of Waterloo Engineering fueled a lot of international interest in this position," said Feridun Hamdullahpur, president of the University of Waterloo. "We were thrilled that, in the end, one of our own professors was the best person for the job. Faculty and students both here and elsewhere have the greatest respect for Pearl Sullivan - a striking example of the top-quality educators and leaders we have in our own community."
Sullivan has had a distinguished academic career. She is the founding director of Waterloo's joint graduate program in nanotechnology within the faculties of engineering and science. Before joining Waterloo, she was a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of New Brunswick (UNB), and a lecturer and visiting professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
"Waterloo Engineering wants to be the destination of choice for the most talented students. We will continue to create opportunities for them to reach their career aspirations to become practitioners, researchers or entrepreneurs," said Sullivan. "Our excellent faculty has led education and research innovation in Canada, and is taking on larger research challenges that will make a global impact."
Originally from Malaysia, but in Canada for nearly 30 years, Sullivan earned her PhD from the Department of Metals and Materials Engineering at the University of British Columbia. She has a master of applied science (MASc) and a bachelor of engineering (BEng) with distinction from the Department of Metallurgical Engineering at the Technical University of Nova Scotia. She holds a professional engineer (PEng) designation from Professional Engineers Ontario, and a Chartered Engineer (CEng) from the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining in the United Kingdom. In 2009, she received the Outstanding Performance Award from Waterloo, and twice received the UNB Faculty Merit Award for Excellence.
Sullivan's five-year term will begin July 1, 2012. She will be Waterloo's eighth dean of engineering, and the first woman to hold that post. She takes over from Adel Sedra, an international authority in microelectronic circuits, who has served two terms as dean and is retiring. Waterloo Engineering is a multi-faceted engineering school with eight academic units, home to about 260 faculty members, more than 1,800 graduate students and 6,340 undergrads. More than 33,000 alumni have made their mark in industry, academe, and the public sector, in Canada and around the world. The undergraduate program is Canada's largest.
Image: Pearl Sullivan, Engineering.
About the University of Waterloo
In just half a century, the University of Waterloo, located at the heart of Canada's Technology Triangle, has become one of Canada's leading comprehensive universities with 34,000 full- and part-time students in undergraduate and graduate programs. Waterloo, as home to the world's largest post-secondary co-operative education program, embraces its connections to the world and encourages enterprising partnerships in learning, research and discovery. In the next decade, the university is committed to building a better future for Canada and the world by championing innovation and collaboration to create solutions relevant to the needs of today and tomorrow. For more information about Waterloo, visit www.uwaterloo.ca.
Media Contact:
Pamela Smyth
Media Relations Officer
University of Waterloo
519.888.4777
psmyth@uwaterloo.ca
www.newsrelease.uwaterloo.ca
Waterloo news release no. 6
