Higher education notebook

Engineering college dean named at ASU

Arkansas State University has appointed its first dean of its College of Engineering and Computer Science, the university announced this week.

Abhijit Bhattacharyya will run the college, after 2 ½ years as the interim vice provost for research and graduate school dean at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, according to a news release from Arkansas State University.

Bhattacharyya worked at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock for 18 years. During that time, he served as associate dean and interim dean of the university’s College of Engineering.

Bhattacharyya earned a bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, India, and a master’s degree in mechanics and materials science from Rutgers University, according to the news release. He earned his doctorate in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Rutgers.

He was a senior researcher at Texas A& M’s department of aerospace engineering for two years and taught mechanical engineering at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, before joining the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Arkansas State’s College of Engineering and Computer Science was created in 2018 from the merging of the College of Engineering and the Department of Computer Science.

Two $ 1M gifts to aid agriculture at ASU

A former Arkansas State University System trustee has made two $ 1 million gifts toward agricultural research, according to a news release from the school.

Trustee Emeritus Mike Gibson is establishing the Judd Hill Student Research and Innovation Endowment. Gibson also has given $ 1 million to start the Judd Hill Agricultural Faculty Excellence Fund. The gifts support student and faculty agricultural research.

Gibson is trustee of the Judd Hill Foundation. The foundation is named for the wealthy businessman who purchased a 5,800- acre tract in Poinsett County that was then transferred to a family that then made the land the foundation’s primary asset, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture.

The university has done field work and college meteorological data on the land for years.