The third candidate interviewed for the new deanship of the College of Engineering said he will bring experience and an adaptability to the changing world to Iowa State.

David Rosowsky, chairman of the civil engineering department at Texas A&M University, was interviewed in an open forum Monday as the third of four dean candidates.

Rosowsky has been the chair at Texas A&M since 2004, and previously was the chairman of the wood sciences and engineering department at Oregon State University. He has also worked at Clemson, Johns Hopkins and Purdue.

He talked about his experience at Texas A&M and how the lessons he learned there would transfer over to Iowa State.

“I serve as the head of one of the largest engineering departments in the country, with 1,600 students and 75 faculty,” he said. “A big part in the tremendous growth that department has gone through was balancing internal and external leadership, and trying to actively understand the culture of the department.”

Rosowsky said he spent eight months of his first year as chair engaging the department, both faculty and students. He said he created a vision and strategy report and task forces to help guide the undergraduate and graduate segments in the department.

“I would say that those task force reports really guided most of the decisions in the department for the last four years,” he said.

Rosowsky then brought his attention toward Iowa State, listing a number of qualities and challenges that the school currently faces, from his perspective. He highlighted the difference between change in industry and change in academia.

“In industry, change is revolutionary. The chairman of Intel said that 90 percent of the products he ships in December weren’t even invented in January,” he said. “Whereas in academia, change is evolutionary, slow. How we reformat ourselves will define the research university of the 21st century.”

Rosowsky emphasized the shrinking nature of the world, that all nations are beginning to be much more interconnected than people think.

“It’s not irrelevant to think of placing Ph.D. programs outside of the U.S. It’s actually critical,” he said. “I would rather place our graduates at the top school in China than a lesser school within the US. Students must get out and see the world.”

Scott Kraus, senior in mechanical engineering, gave Rosowsky a tour of the campus, and said Rosowsky impressed him.

“I thought he was really down to earth, and connected with the students. He was really intrigued by student interaction here,” he said.

Rosowsky said he was impressed by certain elements of Iowa State.

“In the day that I’ve been here, I’ve been struck by the quality of your buildings and labs. There are some incredibly nice buildings and labs compared to mine,” he said. “I also noticed that the people are, by and large, very happy to go here. They share a common sense of optimism. They like to work together, and they like to come into work here.”

Loren Zachary, professor of aerospace engineering and assistant dean for engineering education, said Rosowsky has a charged nature.

“He has a lot of energy, and some experience in bringing change,” he said. “I don’t really see any down sides to him at all.”

Get to know David Rosowsky

1985: Bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Tufts University, Medford, Mass.

1987: Master’s degree in civil engineering from Tufts University, Medford, Mass.

1990: Ph.D. degree in civil engineering from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.

Rosowsky is currently serving his fifth year as head of the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M. During his career he worked as professor and Richardson Chair, departments of civil engineering and wood science and engineering at Oregon State University, Corvallis; associate and assistant professor of civil engineering at Clemson University, Clemson, S.C.; visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.; and assistant professor of civil engineering at Purdue University.

He is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy, Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M. In addition, Rosowsky is a licensed professional engineer. He serves on the editorial board of Structural Safety and was an associate editor of the ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering, Natural Hazards Review and the ASCE Journal of Infrastructure Systems.

— Information from the ISU News Service

There will be one more open forum with the final candidate for the new College of Engineering dean. The forum starts at 3:45 p.m. on March 12 in the Alliant Energy-Lee Liu Auditorium, Howe Hall. The final candidate is Ishwar Puri, professor and department head of engineering science and mechanics, Virginia Tech.