Jayathi Y. Murthy, chair and professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Texas, Austin, has been appointed dean of UCLA’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science (HSSEAS), Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Scott Waugh announced today.
Murthy’s appointment becomes effective Jan. 1, 2016. She will succeed Dean Vijay Dhir, who is returning to the faculty after leading UCLA Engineering since 2002.
“Chancellor Block and I are confident that HSSEAS will reach new heights under Jayathi’s leadership,” Waugh said in an announcement.
Murthy has been the Ernst Cockrell Jr. Department Chair and Professor of Mechanical Engineering in Austin since January 2012. Prior to that, she held faculty positions in mechanical engineering at both Purdue University and Carnegie Mellon University.
Her most recent research has addressed sub-micron thermal transport, multiscale multiphysics simulations and uncertainty quantifications.
Murthy received a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Minnesota, an M.S. from Washington State University and a B. Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology.
She is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the author of more than 280 technical publications. Murthy serves on the editorial boards of Numerical Heat Transfer and the International Journal of Thermal Sciences. She is an editor of the second edition of the Handbook of Numerical Heat Transfer.
Dhir praised Murthy as a “terrific choice” and a “dedicated scholar — someone who is a proven leader deeply committed to world-class excellence in education and research.”