Following a national search,Gary S. May, alumnus, professor and current chair of Electrical and ComputerEngineering, has been appointed as the next dean of Georgia Tech’s College ofEngineering, effective July 1.  

“Gary exemplifies the type ofleadership qualities we hope to instill in each of our students,” ProvostRafael L. Bras said. “As a faculty member, administrator and representative ofGeorgia Tech, his impact on his profession and on this institution has beenprofound.”

May will succeed Don Giddens, who will be stepping down as dean of the College of Engineering, a post he has held since 2002, and retiring from the Institute at the end of June.

Asdean, May will assume responsibility for directing the nation’s largestengineering program, one that enrolls nearly 60 percent of Georgia Tech’s studentbody and is home to about half of its tenured and tenure-track faculty.

“Iam grateful for the opportunity to lead a premier institution like the Collegeof Engineering,” said May. “It is truly an honor and a privilege to beentrusted with one of the world’s most respected brands, and I am lookingforward to working with faculty across the college to advance the quality of oureducation and research programs.”

A native of St. Louis,Missouri, May earned his bachelor’s in electrical engineering at Georgia Tech as a student in Georgia Tech's Cooperative Education Program, a five-year accredited, academic program in which students alternate semesters of full-time study with semesters of full-time, paid employment directly related to their major. Current College of Engineering Dean Giddens was also a co-op student at Georgia Tech.

For his graduate studies, May pursued both his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University ofCalifornia, Berkeley. He returned to Tech as an assistant professor in 1991,achieving full professor status in 2000. Two years later he was tapped bythen-President Wayne Clough to serve as his faculty executive assistant, a rolethat introduced him to administrative responsibilities at an institutionallevel.

May,who has chaired the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering since 2005, sharedhis aspirations for the future of the college during a public presentation lastmonth.

“My vision is to create anenvironment where anyone with the aptitude and inclination to study engineeringwill want to come to Georgia Tech,” he said. In partnership with colleagues inthe other colleges, he added, “we will build a community of scholars to addressthe issues and challenges of the world through technology.”

“Gary’srecord of scholarship, his collaborative nature and his tireless mentorship tostudents are admirable,” President Bud Peterson said. “We are very excited about the future of engineeringeducation and research at Georgia Tech under Gary’s leadership.”

Bras thanked the members ofthe search committee for their service, as well as the members of the largercampus community who participated in the evaluation process.

“Weconducted an international search to identify the best possible candidates tolead our largest academic unit,” Bras said. “That the final choice for thismost important and desirable position is one of our own , as a graduate,professor and academic leader, speaks to the excellence of Georgia Tech."