University of Minnesota’s press release on presidential finalist Eric Kaler

Just for those who want all the info:

University of Minnesota presidential finalist announced

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (11/12/2010) —The University of Minnesota Board of Regents today named a finalist in the search to succeed President Robert Bruininks, when he leaves the presidency in June 2011. The finalist is Eric Kaler, Provost at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York. The next step in the selection process is for the candidate to visit the Twin Cities campus to meet with various constituencies in the university community and also to interview with the Board of Regents. The visit is scheduled for Wednesday, November 17 and Thursday, November 18, 2010.

“We appreciate the broad input of the university community and the work of the Presidential Search Advisory Committee, chaired by Regent Simmons,” said board Chair Clyde Allen. “This next step calls for even more involvement by the university community as the board makes what is one of the most important decisions we’ll make – in selecting the next president of the University of Minnesota.”

The Presidential Search Advisory Committee received 148 nominations and applications to review. Four were recommended to the Board of Regents and the finalist was accepted by the board for consideration.

Additional information on the finalist:

Eric Kaler, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Stony Brook University

Eric W. Kaler is the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Vice-President for Brookhaven Affairs at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York. Appointed as the ninth Provost of Stony Brook University in October of 2007, Dr. Kaler received his undergraduate degree from California Institute of Technology in 1978 and his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1982. Prior to his appointment at Stony Brook, Dr. Kaler was a member of the faculty of the University of Delaware from 1989-2007. He served as the Chair of the Chemical Engineering Department from 1996 to 2000 and Dean of the College of Engineering from 2000 to 2007. Dr. Kaler was named the Elizabeth Inez Kelley Professor of Chemical Engineering in 1998. He was an assistant professor and an associate professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington from 1982 to 1989.

In 2010, Dr. Kaler was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, which is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. He also received the Curtis W. McGraw Research Award from the American Society of Engineering Education in 1995, the American Chemical Society Award in Colloid or Surface Chemistry in 1998, and distinguished lectureship awards around the world. In 1984, Dr. Kaler was one of the first to receive a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation. He is a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Chemical Society. He is the author or co-author of one edited book and over 200 papers, which have been cited more than 9,000 times, and holds 10 U.S. patents. Dr. Kaler’s research interests are in the area of surfactant and colloid science, statistical mechanics, and thermodynamics.

Part of the State University of New York system, Stony Brook University now serves nearly 24,000 students and has 2,100 faculty. It is a member of the Association of American Universities and co-manages Brookhaven National Laboratory, joining an elite group of universities, including Berkeley, the University of Chicago, Cornell, MIT and Princeton, that run federal research and development laboratories.

Dr. Kaler and his wife, Karen Kaler, have two adult sons, Charlie and Sam, and two Spanish Water Dogs.

For more information on the search, the schedule for the finalist’s visits to the University campus and additional biographical information on Dr. Kaler, please visit www.presidentsearch.umn.edu.

• How Augsburg is going all Mark Twain
• How past U of M presidents view higher-ed today
• Metro State data breach affected 160,000 students
• U of M starting massive systems upgrade