New Dean for a new era
Susan Hagness shares her impressions and her vision
New Dean for a New Era
Susan Hagness shares her impressions and her vision
Susan Hagness arrived this summer from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she chaired the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. An internationally prominent researcher, award-winning teacher, experienced academic leader, and member of the National Academy of Engineering, she also makes history as the first woman dean of the Case School of Engineering.
She starts at an auspicious time as the university celebrates its bicentennial and launches the new, $300 million Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building on Case Quad. Case Alumnus sat down with her in Nord Hall shortly after her first day of work, July 1, to discuss the challenges and opportunities ahead.
Welcome to Case. What are your impressions so far?
I will tell you, the warmth and enthusiasm that I’ve experienced from the Case Western Reserve community has made a strong first impression. I am truly overwhelmed by the talent here. In my very first weeks, we celebrated the public announcement of NEO SMART, our NSF-funded regional development engine, and several other highly competitive grants and awards, all of which demonstrate remarkable research advances and partnerships. I am inspired by the passion and dedication of the people I’ve met.
What does it mean to you to be the first woman to lead engineering at Case?
While I may be the first woman to serve as dean, I am certainly not the first woman leader in the Case School of Engineering. I see my appointment as dean as the progression of the trail blazed by faculty and alumni leaders like Anne Hiltner Debra Wilfong, to name just two. To be at a point now where I’m serving as dean of one of the top engineering schools in the country is very meaningful to me and to others, as I have learned from conversations with faculty, staff, students, and alumni. Moreover, my professional experiences over the past three decades position me to fulfill my mission as a champion for all faculty, staff and students.
When did you decide to become an engineer, and who helped you to attain that goal?
This is a fun question. There were a couple of key mentors early on in my life whose influence was instrumental in my pursuit of engineering. I had a junior high math teacher, Bob Fischer, who coached our MathCounts team and made algebra truly exciting. He is still teaching, and when he saw my LinkedIn post about becoming dean at Case, he reached out to me with a wonderful, heartfelt message. He’s a great example of the positive impact of mentors in our lives. I decided to pursue electrical engineering based on the advice of another great mentor, Herb Bailey, a family friend and professor at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. He thought EE would be a great match for my love of math and physics. He was absolutely correct!
You had been at Wisconsin’s flagship university for nearly 30 years and accomplished quite a lot. What enticed you about the deanship at Case?
What I saw in Case Western Reserve was a great engineering school that is pioneering technology for helping people while preparing the next generation of engineering leaders– all in a vibrant metro area with incredible opportunities for partnerships. I saw the potential to build on this school’s legacy of innovation, and also its strengths in interdisciplinary and experiential learning. But to be totally honest, what sold me was the people I met here. This is a high-energy campus full of visionary, collaborative leaders.
What are your immediate plans for the school? How will you go about meeting students, faculty and alumni?
My goal is to listen carefully and move quickly. My highest priorities include faculty hiring, advancing support for our faculty, staff, and students, and engaging with partners regionally and nationally. The team will be keeping me busy with traveling around the state and country! On campus, I’ll be holding collaborative, community efforts to hear from our faculty, staff, students, and alumni.
You arrive at the start of the ISEB era. How do you see the Case School of Engineering utilizing the new research building?
This space is going to be a game changer. It’s going to provide state-of-the-art facilities designed from the ground up for collaborative research across traditional disciplines. The ISEB era is going to be defined by high impact research that makes its way out of the lab and into the world. I also think it’s going to provide new opportunities for industry partnerships and new collaborations with our hospital affiliates. I want to fully leverage the impact of this brilliant facility not only for the school but for the region.
Talk about your own research. What you have explored?
My research in applied electromagnetics is highly crossdisciplinary. With my students and collaborators, I’ve explored microwave interactions with tissue and developed new microwave-frequency technologies for diagnostic and therapeutic applications in medicine. For example, we’ve developed radar-like technologies for imaging breast tissue density and detecting tumors. We also developed minimally invasive microwave thermal therapies to treat cancer. And having spent 28 years in Wisconsin, it’s probably no surprise that I also collaborated with agricultural scientists. In that line of research, we developed techniques to accurately and efficiently predict cranberry crop yield using microwave radar.
You obviously get excited about scientific research.
I do. The research that our faculty, students, and staff are conducting in the Case School of Engineering is vitally important to the nation and the world, because it leads to advances that improve our quality of life. We cannot predict what will stem from today’s “blue-sky” research, but time and time again, we see that technological advances can be traced back to fundamental research. Who wouldn’t be excited about that?
What challenges do you see for schools of engineering and Case in particular, with the threats to federalresearch funding?
There’s a compelling need for the kind of research collaborations that happen at Case Western Reserve. As researchers in engineering, we are driven by projects that have real-world translation and real-world impact, and those continue to be a funding priority at the federal level. Federal agencies are also encouraging public-private partnerships. Our new collaborative DOE Genesis Mission project is the perfect example of a so-called triple-helix team: a national lab, a CWRU research group, and an industry partner working together to tackle critical challenges in electrochemistry and energy. These are the models we need to continue to pursue. Philanthropic support will be an important complementary source of funding.
How about artificial intelligence? What impact do you think AI will have on engineering education?
Over the decades, as engineering innovators and educators, we have embraced new tools that amplify human capacity. Many of our alumni remember the impact of going from the slide rule to calculators in the 1970s, or the advent of personal computers in the late 1980s. Today, AI tools present vast opportunities for us in both education and scientific discovery. These latest tools are rapidly transforming how we do what we do, but they do not replace our creative capacity. Humans need to remain fully in the loop in engineering design and innovation, and in research and discovery. As educators, we’ll continue to emphasize critical thinking and experiential learning, while integrating AI tools into the curriculum to ensure our graduates are well prepared for engineering careers in the era of AI.
Tell us about your family and your interests. What do you like to do in your free time?
Classical music has always been a part of my life. I’m a pianist and a violinist, so I am thrilled to be in a city with a world-class symphony orchestra. I’ll be spending a lot of time at Cleveland Orchestra concerts. My family and I also love hiking, so I’m excited to get out on some of the trails in the Metroparks and to check out Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
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