This year’s new faculty hires are absolutely amazing, and I am proud to introduce them. At the same time, there is more to the story than just adding faculty lines. 

As engineering dean, I feel that it is my job to take the next step and ensure that our new faculty have higher impact careers here at the Jacobs School of Engineering than they would have anywhere else.

What I mean by higher impact careers is that our new faculty feel fully empowered to “go for it” from day one. This means empowering new faculty to get beyond the cutting edge – and to get there from day one with confidence in themselves and their research ecosystem.

I am feeling bullish about this. 

First, our new faculty stand out in their own right.

Second, I work closely with leaders across the entire Jacobs School to empower our new faculty to engage our research ecosystem in mutually beneficial ways. Mutually beneficial being the operative term. From day one, we work hard to make sure our new faculty feel as fully empowered as every other member of the faculty. 

Creating and sustaining these kinds of environments where all faculty feel supported to push their research beyond the cutting edge is a heavy lift. But I am honored to do it because it’s the right lift. When I make that lift –  when we all work together to make that lift – both the faculty and the School at large are maximally empowered to achieve the greatest positive impacts possible in research, in education and in the transfer of innovation to the marketplace.

Here at the Jacobs School, this is all happening within an absolutely marvelous larger campus innovation ecosystem. I see our Jacobs School faculty a synergistic part of UC San Diego’s $1.73 billion campuswide research enterprise.

An annual research funding number this large underscores the opportunities our Jacobs School faculty have to collaborate directly with colleagues all across UC San Diego. In fact, that’s what our faculty are known for.

And when our faculty make positive impacts across campus, a virtuous loop closes, feeding new energy into the Jacobs School ecosystem which, in turn, allows us to make the most of our larger campus research ecosystem. 

This is how we collaborate across campus to deliver on our mission to advance and apply engineering and computer science to solve tough problems and improve lives. In the next year, we expect to announce two new institutes that embody this philosophy. I hope you stay tuned.

But in the meanwhile, please join me in welcoming this newest cohort of faculty to our extraordinary community of innovators. Together we make bold possible.