Dear Colleagues,
I am pleased to announce that Luay Nakhleh, the J. S. Abercrombie Professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science at Rice University, will become the William and Stephanie Sick Dean of the university’s George R. Brown School of Engineering on Jan. 1, 2021.
Luay will succeed Interim Dean and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Robert Griffin, who was appointed to the position July 1 when I took office as Rice’s provost.
Luay holds a bachelor’s degree from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, a master’s from Texas A&M University and a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin, all in computer science.
He joined Rice in 2004 as an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and was promoted to associate professor in 2010 and full professor in 2016. In 2017, he became chair of the department, and in 2018 he was named the J. S. Abercrombie Professor of Computer Science.
During Luay’s tenure as chair of computer science — the largest department at Rice, with more than 300 undergraduate majors and 260 graduate students — the faculty has grown to 35 members with primary appointments in the department, plus a number of joint and adjunct faculty.
Luay also launched Rice’s first online degree in the School of Engineering, the Online Master of Computer Science program, and helped grow the Professional Master of Computer Science, the largest nonbusiness professional program at Rice.
His research has been recognized with several top awards, including the Department of Energy Early Career Award, the National Science Foundation CAREER Award and the John P. Simon Guggenheim Foundation and Alfred P. Sloan fellowships.
Luay also has received several teaching awards at Rice, including the university's most prestigious, the George R. Brown Prize for Excellence in Teaching, in 2019. The award is given annually based on a survey of alumni who graduated within the past two to five years.
Luay has displayed the passion, creativity and vision to take the computer science department to a new level, and I believe he will do the same for the School of Engineering. He is skilled at forming key partnerships that benefit our students and our programs. I am pleased to have Luay serve as dean and look forward to what he will accomplish in the position.
To learn more about Luay, read the Rice News story highlighting his appointment.
Warmest regards,
Reginald DesRoches
Howard R. Hughes Provost