Paul McIntyre named chair of Materials Science and Engineering
Professor Paul McIntyre, an expert on developing inorganic nanostructures for semiconductor and energy applications, has become chair of the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Stanford University.
He was jointly selected by Persis Drell, who became Dean of Stanford Engineering on Sept. 1, and by her predecessor, Professor Jim Plummer, who will now resume his teaching and research duties in Electrical Engineering.
Drell noted that McIntyre takes office following the 10-year tenure of Bob Sinclair, the Charles M. Piggott Professor in the School of Engineering. Sinclair led a move into new facilities, added young faculty, helped boost undergraduate and graduate interest and elevated the department’s standings in national rankings.
“Materials Science has exciting new strategic plans for the future,” Drell said, adding that McIntyre has the experience to continue the department’s momentum and foster collaborative research with other engineering disciplines and more broadly throughout Stanford.
“This may be the best time in department history to become chair because we are in such good shape,” McIntyre said. “We’ve had a great run of hiring amazing young faculty, and they are now rising up through the ranks and affecting all aspects of the department.”
He said the department’s associate chair, Professor Shan Wang, will help foster cross-department collaborations, an effort that will come naturally given his joint appointment in Electrical Engineering and his strong research collaborations with the School of Medicine. Associate Professor Nicholas Melosh will oversee the crucial undergraduate program, and other recently tenured faculty will play leadership roles in the department.
McIntyre is a senior fellow of the Precourt Institute for Energy and was a Global Climate and Energy Project Distinguished Lecturer in 2010. He has authored more than 180 journal papers and has given more than 100 invited presentations, plenary talks and tutorial lectures. The holder of eight U.S. patents, he has received a Semiconductor Research Corporation Inventor Recognition Award, a Charles Lee Powell Foundation Faculty Scholarship and two IBM Faculty Awards. From 2008-2013, he served as Director of the Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, a Stanford independent laboratory that is a primary locus of interdisciplinary materials research on campus.
