Satish Udpa, Michigan State University’s Executive Vice President for Administration and a former Dean of the College of Engineering, will man the helm at MSU as the new interim president.
The Board of Trustees announced Udpa as their pick Thursday morning, hours after former interim President John Engler resigned Wednesday night.
"I would like Dr. Satish Udpa to stand," Board Chair Dianne Byrum told the crowd at Thursday's meeting. Udpa rose to loud applause from the room. "Thank you," he told Byrum.
"I believe this is the beginning of a better relationship...as we continue to heal," Byrum said.
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As a former dean and a University Distinguished Professor, Udpa’s selection is also a gesture of goodwill towards the faculty, which last year voted no confidence in the Board of Trustees after Engler’s hiring.
Udpa also has several years of experience running the administrative side of the university. In 2013, he was named the Executive Vice President for Administration.
His term as interim president begins immediately, and is expected to last until a permanent president is hired this summer.
His full university bio reads:
"President for Administration and University Distinguished Professor. He served as the Dean of the College of Engineering and Chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at MSU before his current appointment. Prior to joining MSU in 2001, Dr. Udpa was the Whitney Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University. He was on the faculty at Colorado State University prior to his stint at Iowa State University. Udpa’s research interests span the broad area of materials characterization and nondestructive evaluation (NDE). He has published extensively, holds several patents, and is the technical editor of the Electromagnetic Nondestructive Testing Handbook published by the American Society for Nondestructive Testing. He serves as the editor of the IEEE Transactions on Magnetics and is the regional editor of the International Journal of Applied Electromagnetics and Mechanics. Dr. Udpa is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the American Society for Nondestructive Testing, the Indian Society for Nondestructive Testing and the Engineering Society of Detroit. He is a Full member of the Academia NDT International. Dr. Udpa also served as the permanent secretary of the World Federation of NDE Centers from 1998 to 2003. Udpa earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Colorado State University."
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