EAST LANSING, Mich. - Janie M. Fouke, who leads a new division of the National Science Foundation, will be recommended as dean of Michigan State University's College of Engineering.
Fouke is director of Bioengineering and Environmental Systems for the NSF in Arlington, Va., a division she helped set up in 1995. While at NSF, she has been on a leave of absence as a professor of biomedical engineering at Case Western University in Cleveland.
The recommendation will be voted upon by the MSU Board of Trustees at its June 25 meeting. If approved, she is expected to take the position Sept. 1. George Van Dusen had served as acting dean since Theodore Bickart left as dean last summer.
Fouke brings to the position both high-level administrative experience and a history of solid scientific research.
"We are very fortunate to recruit a person of such vision, energy, and competence," said MSU Provost Lou Ann K. Simon. "We expect the academic vitality and international prominence of the college to dramatically grow under the new leadership."
"Dr. Fouke is a leader with an impressive record of research and a commitment to engineering education," said MSU President Peter McPherson. "She has a vision and a dynamic agenda. This is an exciting time for our College of Engineering."
The chair of the search committee, Ron Harichandran, professor and chair of civil and environmental engineering, said Fouke's background and research in bioengineering and environmental systems should facilitate the enhancement of MSU's research thrust areas.
"Janie Fouke has demonstrated her ability to integrate intellectually not only across many divisions of NSF, but also across the R&D entities of the federal government," Harichandran said. "She is well connected with many federal agencies, which will be an asset to MSU. She has national visibility through her leadership roles in the IEEE Technical Activities Board, as well as other professional societies."
Fouke was recruited to the NSF in 1995 as the organization sought to strengthen its commitment to engineering applied to the life sciences. An electrical engineer by training, Fouke's research history included extensive work in medical instrumentation. She and her associates explored instruments that could increase the medical community's understanding of how human lungs work and how diseases such as cystic fibrosis and asthma impair lung function.
At the NSF, she was charged with starting the new division. What was to be a two-year stint turned into four, said Joseph Bordogna, NSF deputy director.
"Her task was to create this division - she had to make it happen," Bordogna said. "She has a combination of skills that most people don't have -she can envision the future. She thinks both holistically and strategically. Most people think in slots in their own fields, but Janie can cross organizational disciplinary boundaries and can organize groups of people to work well together.
"She has created a great strategic vision of what bioengineering should be at the NSF."
Michigan State's College of Engineering has seven departments with approximately 4,000 undergraduate and 600 graduate students. MSU's commitments to active learning and to the community drew Fouke.
"The Guiding Principles resonate with me," she said. "The idea that you can involve the students more dynamically in the process of the classroom is a theme that is running through engineering education right now. And the idea that you have an overriding mission to try to apply knowledge in practice - it's what engineers do. We're very driven to direct our scholarly activities toward a goal."
She also serves in numerous professional societies, including being on the board of directors of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers, an organization of 330,000 members worldwide.
She received her doctorate in biomedical mathematics and engineering from the University of North Carolina.
Fouke is a native of Ayden, N.C., a rural agricultural community about 100 miles southeast of Raleigh. Early in her career, she taught public school in North Carolina. In Ayden, she said, the role engineers play in the life of an agrarian community is obvious.
"MSU obviously is very tuned into the neighborhood in which it lives," she said. "It knows that this is its home and it is a player in the community. That feels good. It's a fit between the campus values and my values."