Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
SUCCEEDS KERREBROCK ME's David Wormley Named Engineering Associate Dean Professor David N. Wormley, head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering since 1982, has been named associate dean of the School of Engineering. Professor Wormley is recognized widely for his research in control systems, transportation systems and fossil fuel energy systems. His appointment was announced by Dean Joel Moses of the School of Engineering. Dean Moses, the Dugald Caleb Jackson Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, also announced that Professor Wormley would continue to serve as head of mechanical engineering while a search for a new department head is made. "Dave Wormley was the overwhelming choice of the many members of the faculty and administration whom I have consulted," Dean Moses said in a letter to School of Engineering faculty. "He has been an outstanding head of the Mechanical Engineering Department for the last nine years. He is an excellent teacher and has won two Graduate Student Council Awards for Outstanding Teaching. His research interests. . . complement those of my own. He is widely recognized as a person with great judgment. It will be a pleasure sharing the Dean's Office with him." Professor Wormley succeeds Professor Jack L. Kerrebrock who served as associate dean with Professor Moses' predecessor, Professor Gerald L. Wilson, from September 1985 until January 1990, when he began a sabbatical year. Professor Kerrebrock has resumed his teaching and research in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The new associate dean of engineering received all of his degrees from MITÑthe SB in 1962, the SM in 1964, and the PhD in 1967. He was appointed to the faculty in 1967 as assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and became head of the department's Systems and Design Division in 1977. Professor Wormley's research has focused on the dynamic analysis, optimization and design of advanced control systems, transportation systems and fossil fuel energy systems. He is director of the Association of American Railroads Affiliated Laboratory at MIT. His research has included the development of sensors and actuators for advanced control systems, control modeling and simulation techniques for fossil fuel power systems and analysis techniques and experimental evaluation methodologies for transport vehicles and guideways. Long noted for his excellent classroom teaching, Professor Wormley twice (1975 and 1977) was the recipient of the Graduate Student Council's award for outstanding teaching in his department. He has taught undergraduate and graduate subjects in dynamic systems, control, instrumentation and design. He is a member of the Institute Committee on Undergraduate Programs, has been co-chair of the Science- Engineering Working Group (a committee which in 1989 made recommendations concerning the science and engineering core subjects for first-year undergraduates) and currently is chairman of the Education Committee for the School of Engineering. He serves on the Governing Board of the Leaders for Manufacturing Program and is chair of the Sea Grant Faculty Advisory Committee. He is co-principal investigator of the NSF-ECSEL university coalition effort at MIT for renewal of undergraduate engineering education. In addition to MIT, members are Howard University, which is the lead institution, City College of New York, Morgan State University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Maryland and University of Washington. Professor Wormley is chairman of the board of the Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation, a Commonwealth of Massachusetts quasi-public venture capital organization; a member of the National Science Foundation Advisory Board to the Mechanics and Structures Division; a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers' Board of Research, and is past chairman of the Systems and Design Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He is vice- president elect of the Systems and Design Group of the ASME. In addition, he is a member of ASME, Sigma Xi and Pi Tau Sigma and serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Vehicle Mechanics and Mobility. He has been the recipient of the ASME Lewis Moody Award, and a NASA Certificate of Recognition, and is a Fellow in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.