Yale News
Jeff Brock was tapped for a second five-year term as dean of the School of Engineering & Applied Science last week.
University President Peter Salovey announced the reappointment in a message to the University on Apr. 18. Brock, a professor of mathematics, was first appointed dean of the School of Engineering & Applied Science on Aug. 1, 2019.
“This renewal recognizes Dean Brock’s success in advancing the school’s strategic vision, deepening interdisciplinary research priorities, and optimizing organizational structures for partnership and impact,” Salovey wrote.
Brock is an alumnus of Yale College, where he sang with the Whiffenpoofs and received his bachelor’s in mathematics in 1992. He later received his doctorate in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1997. Before joining Yale faculty in 2018, Brock was a professor at Brown University for 15 years, serving as the chair of the University’s Department of Mathematics for four years.
According to Udo Schwarz, a professor of mechanical engineering and chair of the Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science department, Brock’s leadership has set the school in “the right direction.”
“It has been a pleasure to work with Dean Brock in the last five years, during which time he has proven to be a thoughtful, strategic, and easy-to-work-with leader who is always open to suggestions, requests and needs of the Engineering community,” Schwarz wrote in an email to the News.
Brock has overseen several profound changes to the engineering school since his initial appointment. In July 2022, the engineering school began to operate as an autonomous school, allowing Brock to lead the hiring of over 30 new faculty members. At the same time, the University announced construction plans for a new physical sciences and engineering building on Science Hill and an engineering school quadrangle on the lower Hillhouse area.
In addition, Brock has helped expand the breadth of the school, nearly doubling the size of the computer science department, partly in response to growing interest in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. In his message, Salovey noted that Brock was also responsible for the development of several new joint master’s degree programs between the engineering school and the School of the Environment, School of Management and School of Medicine.
James Duncan is a professor and chair of the Biomedical Engineering Department. In an email with the News, Duncan expressed that he is “pleased” with Brock’s reappointment due to his “incredible amount of both energy and focus.”
“I look forward to his continued leadership in the coming years, not only with respect to the further development of excellence and faculty numbers in our academic pursuits, but in an entirely new physical campus for Yale Engineering as well,” Duncan wrote.
Brock’s second term will begin on July 1, 2024.