Dear Lyles School of Civil and Construction Engineering colleagues,

Through some informal feedback, I have learned that not all of you are up to date about the head search as you could be. I hope this email helps rectify that somewhat.

For those of you who do not know me, I am the Head in Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Dean has asked me to serve as the "head from another school" co-chair of the search committee. Joining me as the alumni co-chair of the search committee is Chris Burke; I believe many of you are familiar with Dr. Burke and his ties to CCE at Purdue. In addition to his very successful consulting engineering and surveying company, he is a member of the NAE and a Professor of Practice at the University of Illinois - Chicago.

Because the search for the Bob Bowen Head is very important, the College has hired Russell Reynolds, a search firm with expertise in academic administrator searches, and Jett Pihakis is the specialist helping us out with the search, including marketing, targeting potential candidates, etc.

We have several CCE faculty and staff on the search committee and a representative from the College's development team. The committee includes:

Sogand Mohammadhasanzadeh

We are getting staff support from Teresa DeMien.

The committee has been working already to identify potential candidates for the Head position; if you haven't been contacted by one of your colleagues on the search committee to provide suggestions, please reach out to one of them with your suggestions. You can also send recommendations to me if you prefer.

A large part of our activity to date has been to prepare a position description that Jett and his Russell Reynolds team is sending to targeted individuals and a job announcement that is posted and shared in publications and online sources (see https://jobs.chronicle.com/job/37941677/bob-bowen-head-lyles-school-of-civil-and-construction-engineering/ as an example).

Our plan is to be reviewing initial candidate applications in the last week of February and the first week of March, with the intent to eventually have on campus interviews the week of 20 April. It is a slightly aggressive schedule, but gives the committee the best opportunity to recommend a candidate and potentially have them in place for the start of the 2026-27 academic year.

I hope this provides an update that gives you an idea of where we are in the search process. Thanks to the CCE members of the search committee for helping with this. I will coordinate with the search committee to provide updates as appropriate as the search proceeds.

Regards,

Bill Crossley

____________________
William A. Crossley, Ph.D.

(he/him/his)

Uhrig & Vournas Head of Aeronautics and Astronautics,

and Professor, School of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Director, PEGASAS, FAA Center of Excellence for General Aviation

For calendar assistance, please contact Audrey Sherwood: asherwo@purdue.edu