Engineering School Dean Godfrey Mungal Will Step Down After 10 Years
Dean Mungal to complete his five-year term summer 2017 and return to faculty thereafter
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 25, 2016 —In summer 2017, Dr. Godfrey Mungal will complete his second five-year term as Dean of the School of Engineering and return to the faculty. Provost Dennis Jacobs announced today that Santa Clara University will commence a national search this fall for the next Dean of the School of Engineering.
“Dean Mungal has greatly advanced the academic programs and reputation of the School of Engineering over the past decade,” said Provost Jacobs. “In addition to providing an excellent technical education to all of Santa Clara’s engineering students, Dean Mungal has championed the value of a strong liberal arts foundation, integrated ethical reasoning and an entrepreneurial mindset throughout the curriculum, and emphasized the responsibility that engineers have to improve the human condition.”
With the goal of engaging undergraduate students in large?scale hands?on projects, Dean Mungal has created facilities and programs to spawn creativity and innovation. Santa Clara students have competed nationally in three Solar Decathlon competitions, a contest sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy to challenge collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive.
A Santa Clara team of three computer engineering students recently won the Intel Security Hackathon. And Santa Clara undergraduates are currently designing and building a fully functional, off-grid home on wheels for the October 2016 Tiny House Competition.
"Dean Mungal has creatively expressed the Jesuit values of Santa Clara University within the School of Engineering," said University President Michael E. Engh, S.J. "For example, he established the Frugal Innovation Hub, a novel space in which students pursue engineering projects that benefit individuals and underserved communities regionally and in the developing world."
Under Dean Mungal’s leadership, the School of Engineering has seen 50 percent growth in the number of undergraduate and graduate students pursuing engineering degrees, making Santa Clara University the second-largest producer of engineering graduates among U.S. Catholic universities and colleges.
Promoting the success of women and underrepresented groups in the engineering profession, Santa Clara University’s School of Engineering has the third-highest percentage of female faculty among engineering schools in the nation. U.S. News & World Report ranks Santa Clara’s undergraduate engineering program 12th in the nation among universities that do not have a large doctoral program.
Mungal was appointed dean of Santa Clara University’s School of Engineering in fall 2007, after serving as Associate Dean for Graduate Policy and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. “It has been an honor and privilege to work with the administration, faculty and staff to produce graduates who are well grounded in technical skills, the liberal arts, and ethical thinking, which are the hallmarks of Jesuit education,” said Dean Mungal.
After completing his term as dean, Dr. Mungal, the Sobrato Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Santa Clara University, plans to take a sabbatical and advance his research in the areas of fluid mechanics, turbulent mixing, and reacting flow.
About Santa Clara University
Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located 40 miles south of San Francisco in California’s Silicon Valley, offers its more than 8,800 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, theology, and engineering, plus master’s and law degrees and engineering Ph.D.s. Distinguished nationally by one of the highest graduation rates among all U.S. master’s universities, California’s oldest operating higher-education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice. For more information, see www.scu.edu.