New Chairs Announced 
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Professor Surya K. Mallapragada has been named chair of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. A member of the Iowa State faculty since 1996, Mallapragada is the Stanley Chair in Interdisciplinary Engineering and is also fieldwork proposal leader for bioinspired materials at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory. An accomplished researcher in the areas of smart polymers and neural tissue engineering, Mallapragada is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. MIT’s Technology Review named her one of the World’s Top 100 Young Innovators in 2002. Mallapragada earned her BS at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, and her PhD at Purdue University.
With Jon Wickert taking the reins of the college, Ted Heindel, professor and associate chair for academic affairs, was named as interim chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering effective July 1. Director of the Experimental Multiphase Flow Laboratory, Heindel was recently awarded the Bergles professorship. He received his BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and master’s and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from Purdue University. His appointment will continue until the next permanent chair is in place. An open search for that position began this fall.
Professor Thomas J. Rudolphi has been named interim chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering. Rudolphi, who previously served as AerE chair from 1996 to 2003, received his BS in engineering mechanics from the University of Illinois in 1969 and worked three years as a structural analyst with the Atomics International division of the North American Rockwell Corporation. He then returned to Illinois for graduate studies and took his MS and PhD degrees in 1973 and 1977, respectively, in theoretical and applied mechanics. Rudolphi succeeds Tom Shih, who was named head of aeronautics and astronautics at Purdue University.
Professor Arun K. Somani has announced his resignation as chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in order to return full time to teaching and research in his core interest areas of computing and networking systems. An Anson Marston Distinguished Professor and Jerry R. Junkins Endowed Chair Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Somani has led ECpE since May 2003. He has agreed to stay at the helm of the department in the current academic year during a national search for his replacement.
