Stevens Announces Dr. Jean Zu, New Dean of the Schaefer School of Engineering & Science, as 2017 Graduate Commencement Speaker
Stevens Institute of Technology is pleased to announce that Jean Zu, Ph.D., P.Eng., who was recently named the new dean of the Charles V. Schafer, Jr. School of Engineering & Science (SES), will deliver the keynote address at the 2017 graduate student commencement ceremony. The ceremony will take place on Wednesday, May 24, at the Meadowlands Expo Center in Secaucus, New Jersey.
An accomplished scholar of mechanical vibrations and dynamics and mechatronics, Dr. Zu is the former chair of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. She will begin her appointment as dean of SES on May 1.
Dr. Zu’s research interests reside in mechanical vibrations, dynamic analysis, design and mechatronics of various mechanical systems. She has successfully collaborated with many different companies on research projects with a focus on automotive applications. Dr. Zu recently extended her research to biomedical instruments and vibration-based energy harvesting. She published over 300 refereed papers, including 160 journal papers, and attracted numerous grants and contracts from government and industry to support her research.
Dr. Zu graduated with B.S. and M.S. degrees from Tsinghua University. After two years of working as a lecturer and researcher at Tsinghua University, she traveled to Canada and obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba. She joined the University of Toronto in 1994 as a faculty member in the mechanical and industrial engineering department. In 2009, she made history at that university by becoming the first woman to be appointed chair of the department of mechanical and industrial engineering, a role she served in prior to her appointment at Stevens. Dr. Zu will also be the first woman appointed as dean of SES.
She served as president of the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) from 2012 to 2014, and is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineering (CSME). She served as president of the CSME from 2006 to 2008, on the Grant Selection Committee of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) from 2004 to 2007, and as the associate editor of the ASME Journal of Vibrations and Acoustics from 2007 to 2013. She has worked extensively to raise both awareness and funding for engineering programs at the University of Toronto and across Canada.
The graduate academic procession for Ph.D. and master's degree candidates will start at 11 a.m. More than 3,000 family and friends are expected to gather to celebrate more than 1,500 graduate students as they receive Ph.D. or master’s degree. The undergraduate procession for bachelor's degree and dual degree candidates will start at 4 p.m., during which more than 600 graduates will also receive their baccalaureate degrees in engineering, science, management, and the humanities.
For more information about this year's speakers and Stevens’ 145th Commencement, please visit Commencement 2017.
About Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology, The Innovation University®, is a premier, private research university situated in Hoboken, N.J. overlooking the Manhattan skyline. Founded in 1870, technological innovation has been the hallmark and legacy of Stevens’ education and research programs for
147 years. Within the university’s three schools and one college, 6,600 undergraduate and graduate students collaborate with more than 300 full-time faculty members in an interdisciplinary, student-centric, entrepreneurial environment to advance the frontiers of science and leverage technology to confront global challenges. Stevens is home to three national research centers of excellence, as well as joint research programs focused on critical industries such as healthcare, energy, finance, defense, maritime security, STEM education and coastal sustainability. The university is consistently ranked among the nation’s elite for return on investment for students, career services programs and mid-career salaries of alumni. Stevens is in the midst of a 10-year strategic plan, The Future. Ours to Create., designed to further extend the Stevens legacy to create a forward-looking and far-reaching institution with global impact.