The new dean of the School of Engineering is Jennifer Widom, one of the professors who helped lead the recent long-term planning project for the school. Widom, a professor of computer science and of electrical engineering, succeeds Persis Drell, who was named university provost.
“While Persis was dean,” said Widom, “a number of exciting initiatives were launched as a result of the SOE-Future planning process, and I’m extremely excited to see them through.” Among the examples Widom emphasized were a “passionate” commitment to support for non-tenure-line educators and greater diversity at all levels.
Widom, who led the planning initiative with Professor Arun Majumdar, recently served as senior associate dean and was chair of the computer science department from 2009 to 2014. In 2011, she created one of Stanford’s first massive open online courses, Introduction to Databases, which continues to attract thousands of students through a self-study version.
