Candidates vying for the dean’s seat in a college striving to be one of the best in the nation will begin making campus visits in April.

The final four candidates in the College of Engineering dean search include Timothy Anderson, associate dean of research and graduate programs for the College of Engineering and professor of chemical engineering at the University of Florida at Gainesville; Prith Banerjee, department chairman and Walter P. Murphy Professor of electrical and computer engineering at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.; Mark Kushner, Founder Professor of engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and Stella Pang, associate dean for graduate education for the College of Engineering and professor in the department of electrical engineering and computer science at Solid State Electronics Laboratory at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

James Melsa, the current engineering dean, will retire in June 2004.

The candidates were narrowed from a field of more than 30 applicants.

“I think the reputation of Iowa State and Dean Melsa really helped us get a very, very strong pool,” said Walter Gmelch, College of Education dean and search committee chairman. “Our top four candidates are really stellar — they’re very good both as academic scholars as well as leaders.”

Melsa, who has served as dean since July 1995, said the new dean will take on the responsibilities of the college’s “Reach for the Top” initiative, which aims to place Iowa State’s College of Engineering graduate program in the top 20 in the United States.

“It’s a tough, but achievable goal … that I think will put the college on the map,” he said.

Gmelch said each candidate was asked about their sense of direction for the college. “They all knew about ‘Reach for the Top,'” he said.

Melsa said Iowa State’s large size can help it to become one of the country’s top engineering colleges.

A unique skill the new dean will need is the ability to connect directly with the engineering industry, Melsa and Gmelch said. For this reason, industry members were included in the dean search committee.

“This is certainly true of all of the deans, [but] perhaps more than most of the others: [Being an engineering dean] requires being connected to industry in the country, in the state — being able to connect to that clientele,” Melsa said.

Melsa said because most of the budget is set for fiscal year 2005, the new dean will likely not have to make any immediate budget decisions. Any continued budget cuts, however, would require a “quick learning curve,” Melsa said.

“I think [budget cuts] make the job more challenging, but I think it also means the new dean will have to be very clever, very creative and very willing to make some tough choices of priorities for the college,” Melsa said.

Gmelch said the new dean could face a different set of hurdles.

“Most of them know about the budget issues — it’s been across the country,” he said. “One of the challenges is they will be succeeding a very successful dean — Dean Melsa’s been very effective.”

The final dean selection rests with the provost and president with input from the university. Gmelch said the new dean will be in place by this summer.