Daniel Berg, a member of the National Academy of Engineering and distinguished research professor at the University of Miami College of Engineering (UM CoE) — a position he has held for 11 years, is interim dean of the College.
He brings to the position experience from Carnegie Mellon University, where teaching in both the Graduate School of Industrial Administration and the Engineering School he became dean and then provost, and facilitated establishing their Robotics Institute. He also brings experience from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where, as Institute Professor of Science and Technology, he served as provost then president.
“I am honored to accept this appointment as interim dean,” Berg said. “My goals for this opportunity include maintaining momentum on current programs and helping the faculty, students and staff at the College begin to realize our aspirations. I will also be involved in helping to recruit and develop faculty, staff and students as we continue advancing the College’s innovative engineering programs.”
Berg will also continue the College’s growing emphasis on innovation and industry partnerships. “Translating research to society utilization as well as creating fundamental knowledge is critically important,” he said. “I believe in the potential of the CoE to address today’s and tomorrow’s technological challenges through our research and by educating the engineers of the future.”
Berg’s career history spans both industry and academia. In addition to positions at Carnegie Mellon and Rensselear Polytechnic, he was a technical director at Westinghouse before embarking on his academic career. He studied physics and chemistry at the City College of New York before receiving master’s and doctoral degrees from Yale University.
Berg regularly visited the UM College of Engineering well before joining the faculty, when he helped organize the annual International Conference on Management of Technology, which was first hosted by the College in 1991.
“I’ve known all the UM CoE deans of the past 42 years well – Einspruch, Becker, Temares, Tien and Bardet – both personally and professionally,” Berg said. “Our aspirations, our research and our demographics, of course, have changed quite a bit during those years. It’s very meaningful to me to be involved internally with the College into this next phase.”
