Rice names first African American provost
Engineering school dean aims to ‘work with everybody and make the university greater’
Rice University has promoted its dean of the school of engineering to provost.
Reginald DesRoches, the highest-ranking African American in Rice history, called his new position “quite significant” — even historical — for a campus that did not accept its first black undergraduate student until 1965.
“In the end, I want to get in there and do a great job and work with everybody and make the university greater,” DesRoches said. But “being an inspiration to kids who look like myself who want to be in academia, I see that as a benefit. … If I can serve as a role model for them, I think that’s awesome.”
Upon coming to Rice in 2017 as dean of engineering, DesRoches said Rice’s smaller campus was a departure from his time teaching at Georgia Tech University’s large campus in Atlanta. Nonetheless, DesRoches said he “fell in love with the place,” noting the “outstanding” quality of students and the exhilarating research taking place at the university’s engineering school — the largest school on campus.
DesRoches expanded the engineering school’s faculty by nearly 20 percent, strengthened collaborations with the Texas Medical Center, launched the Center for Transforming Data to Knowledge, which provides students immersive learning opportunities with working companies and community organizations, and led initiatives to boost research and recruiting efforts in China and India. DesRoches also launched a new data science minor and established an online master’s program in computer science.
“He is an accomplished scholar and a proven academic leader. During his years as dean of engineering at Rice, he has demonstrated in numerous ways that he shares the high aspirations and values of the university. His commitment to excellence extends to every part of our endeavors,” Rice President David Leebron said in a written statement.
Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and raised in Queens, N.Y., DesRoches said his interest in “tinkering with things” led to his love of science and math and, eventually, his decision to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, according to a release. Witnessing the damage the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake wreaked on San Francisco propelled his curiosity further — making him ponder structural engineering and how improved design could help structures perform better in earthquakes. DesRoches later began studying this for both his master’s and doctorate degrees, which he also pursued at UC-Berkeley, and is now a nationally recognized expert on earthquake resilience.
In 1998, DesRoches began teaching at Georgia Tech as an assistant professor, and he later served as a professor in 2008 and as the official Karen and John Huff School Chair and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering in 2012. During his time at Georgia Tech, he doubled the number of chairs and professors, received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2002 — the highest honor given to scientists and engineers in the early stages of their career — and oversaw a $13.5 million renovation of the engineering school’s main facilities.
Since then, DesRoches has won several awards, including the Distinguished Arnold Kerr Lecturer Award in 2019 and the John A. Blume Distinguished Lecturer and the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute Distinguished Lecturer awards in 2018. He was also a recipient of the 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers Charles Martin Duke Lifeline Earthquake Engineering Award and the 2007 ASCE Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize.
He said he is excited to take over the provost position July 1.
“I’m really humbled and honored to serve in this role,” said DesRoches, noting that his goals as provost are to expand beyond the engineering school and to learn and connect with the broader university. “To create a great impact is what I’m excited about as well, and to just continue to do the great things that the university is known for.”