Third candidate for engineering dean to present Nov. 30

LAWRENCE — An engineering department chair from the University of Florida is the final of three candidates who will take part in on-campus interviews for dean of the school.

David Hahn, professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida, will make a public presentation from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 30, in 164 Ritchie Hall. Members of the KU community are invited to attend the presentation and provide feedback of their impressions to the search committee, led by Ken Audus, dean of the KU School of Pharmacy.

Hahn has held a number of faculty leadership positions during his 20 years at the University of Florida. The department, which he has led since 2011, is the largest department at the university, with more than 1,800 undergraduate students and more than 450 graduate students. In 2015, he was named an affiliate professor with UF’s Center for Gender, Sexualities, and Women’s Studies and Research. He has also been an affiliate professor with the Materials Science and Engineering Department since 2013. Between 2008 and 2011 he was associate chair for academics. Before he joined the University of Florida in 1998, he spent three years as a member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California. He also held two postdoctoral positions — one at Sandia National Labs and another at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Devices and Radiological Health.

His research focuses on thermal sciences and laser-based diagnostics, including renewable solar energy, biophotonics and laser-materials interactions. As a principal investigator, or co-PI, Hahn is associated with more than $15 million in research funding from federal and state agencies, institutes and industry. Hahn holds nine U.S. patents, with an additional five patents pending. He is a prolific author with more than 100 journal articles to his credit. His research appears in the journals Applied Spectroscopy, Aerosol Science & Technology, the Journal of Biomedical Optics and Analytical Chemistry. He is co-author of the book “Heat Conduction,” published in 2012. He has served as an editor or on the editorial board for several publications.

Hahn has been involved in a variety of university, College of Engineering and departmental activities, including serving on the search committee for the director of the Office of Technology Licensing. He has achieved fellow status in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Optical Society of America and the Society for Applied Spectroscopy (SAS). He is also a member of the International Society for Optics and Photonics, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the American Society for Engineering Education and Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honor society.

In 2014, he was honored with the Alumni Achievement Award from the Louisiana State University Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. He received the 2011 Lester Strock Award from the SAS. Hahn was selected for the 2009-2010 Advisor/Mentor of the Year and the 2007-2008 Teacher/Scholar of the Year awards within the UF College of Engineering. In 1998, he received the Sandia National Laboratories Award for Technical Excellence.

Hahn earned a doctorate and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, both from Louisiana State University.

Candidates have been asked to present their ideas on factors they consider critical to the future success of the School of Engineering and how they, as dean, would leverage strengths and remove impediments to increase the school’s impact.

The presentations of the candidates are being recorded and will be available for viewing online after the final candidate has appeared on campus. Members of the campus community will have until Tuesday, Dec. 4, to provide their impressions and observations of each candidate online.

The dean of the School of Engineering oversees KU’s second largest academic unit on the Lawrence and Edwards Campus, with more than 3,000 students. The school has dramatically expanded its facilities since 2012, adding five new buildings and 325,000 square feet of world-class research labs, state-of-the-art classrooms and enhanced collaboration spaces. In the past six years, the school has seen a 29 percent increase in bachelor’s degrees awarded and 15 percent increase in graduate degrees awarded.