A search committee appointed to review candidates for the position of provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Missouri-Rolla selected four candidates for on-campus interviews. The candidates all have experience at various levels of university administration.

All of the candidates have visited the UMR campus for on-campus interviews and held open forums with faculty, staff and students. The search committee is preparing to submit a list of finalists to UMR Chancellor John F. Carney III.

“We are very pleased to have such a strong group of candidates resulting from our nationwide search,” said Craig Adams, the John and Susan Mathes Chair of Environmental Engineering and chair of the provost search committee. “This is an exciting time for UMR, and each of these candidates would bring very good administrative experience, demonstrated scholarship, and strong leadership to our university.”

The four candidates are:

• Dr. Seshu Desu, Distinguished Professor and head of the electrical and computer engineering department at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in Amherst, Mass.
• Dr. John Halloran, the Alfred Holmes White Collegiate Professor of Materials Engineering in the materials science and engineering department at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich.
• Dr. Wayne Huebner, vice provost for research at UMR.
• Dr. Warren Kent Wray, professor of civil and environmental engineering from Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Mich.

Each of the candidates visited the UMR campus in on-campus interviews. Open forums with faculty, staff, and students were held during each interview. Audio from the open forums is available at news.mst.edu/audio.html.

In addition to Adams, members of the search committee are:

• Meg Brady, project manager, UMR’s information technology department
• Dr. Delbert Day, Curators’ Professor emeritus of materials science and engineering
• Dr. William G. Fahrenholtz, associate professor of materials science and engineering
• Lauren Huchingson, UMR Student Council vice president of internal affairs and a senior information sciences and technology major
• Dr. Richard Hall, professor of information science and technology and associate dean of the School of Management and Information Systems
• Jeanie Hofer, director of international affairs
• Dr. Ming Leu, the Keith and Pat Bailey Professor of Integrated Product Development and Manufacturing
• John Mathes of St. Louis, a UMR graduate, member of the UMR Board of Trustees and former President of the University of Missouri Board of Curators
• Dr. Francisca Oboh-Ikuenobe, professor of geological sciences and engineering
• Prasenjit Shil, a Ph.D. student in engineering management and president of the UMR Council of Graduate Students
• Laura Stoll, registrar
• Dr. Kristine Swenson, associate professor of English and technical communication
• Dr. Frank Blum, Curators Professor of chemistry
• Dr. Kurt Kosbar, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.