A replacement has been found for retiring College of Engineering Dean James Melsa.

Mark J. Kushner, professor of engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will replace Melsa, who will retire June 30, as head of the College of Engineering. Kushner will take over as dean Jan. 1, 2005.

An interim dean will be appointed in the meantime. Benjamin Allen, provost and vice president for academic affairs, said he has begun the search for an interim dean and hopes to make an announcement next week.

Walter Gmelch, dean of the College of Education and chairman of the dean search committee, said Kushner was one of the most qualified of the candidates.

“Clearly, he’s had excellent leadership experience,” Gmelch said. “He has high standards and a great sense of direction.”

Kushner said one of the reasons he accepted the offer to come to Iowa State was the strong reputation of the College of Engineering.

“ISU has an excellent reputation as a land-grant university,” he said. “It’s one of the best in the country.”

The transition to Iowa State from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign won’t be too difficult, he said, since there are many shared characteristics between the two institutions. Both are large land-grant universities, he said, with similar goals, including an emphasis on improving the stature of their engineering programs.

Iowa State already has a strategic plan to push the College of Engineering into the top 20 schools in the United States. The program, called the Reach the Top Initiative, is focused on placing Iowa State in the upper tier of engineering programs by 2012. Currently, the ISU engineering program is ranked 32nd in the nation, according to a report from US News & World Report.

Allen said the initiative was an attraction for some of the candidates.

“It reflects excellence and vision,” he said.

The initiative was started by Melsa and is considered by Kushner to be of utmost importance.

“There is a lot of opportunity for Iowa State to have a lot of influence on the national and international level,” Allen said.

Improvement, however, would not be possible without Melsa, Allen said.

“It would be difficult to achieve goals without Dean Melsa,” Allen said.

Besides improving the status of the engineering program nationally, Kushner said he also intends to broaden the scope of an engineering undergraduate degree.

“Engineering education should not only be for engineers,” he said. “It should also be such that other majors beside people that want an engineering degree can use that as stepping stones.”

He said he thought the analytical nature of an engineering education would help people that are seeking degrees in fields such as law or nursing work out problems.

Allen said Kushner is a person who leads with very careful thoughts.

Kushner’s record as an administrator at the University of Illinois has also helped him to be an effective leader, Gmelch said. While at Illinois, Kushner held many different positions, including assistant dean of academic programs and interim dean of associate of administrative affairs. Kushner also holds three patents as well as international recognition in fields such as laser physics.