Jerome Lynch Named New Dean of Pratt School of Engineering

Jerome Lynch, a nationally recognized expert in advanced sensing and information technologies for monitoring and control of civil infrastructure systems, and an advocate for community engagement in research, has been named the Vinik Dean of Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering.

Lynch will join Duke on January 1, 2022, from the University of Michigan, where he is the Donald Malloure Department Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He succeeds Ravi Bellamkonda, who stepped down to become provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Emory University. Meanwhile, Jeffrey Glass, professor of electrical & computer engineering, Duke Engineering’s senior associate dean for education and learning innovation and Duke Materials Initiative (DMI) faculty member, is serving as interim dean.

"With our physical world built entirely from materials, the Duke Materials Initiative is profoundly shaping the world we live in. By fostering a vibrant, interdisciplinary ecosystem across campus and beyond, the Duke Materials Initiative is uniquely responding to the demanding material needs of scientists and engineers tackling the grand challenges of the 21st century. It is a great honor for the Pratt School of Engineering to be able to work in close partnership with other campus collaborators to propel DMI to the vanguard of the materials revolution." 

Jerome Lynch 

A member of the University of Michigan faculty since 2003, Lynch has focused on developing both technologies and partnerships to build smarter, healthier communities.

Lynch also has extensive experience commercializing engineering technologies. He holds three U.S. patents, has two patents pending, and has founded two companies – Civionics and Sensametrics – to implement commercial applications of his research.

As chair of Michigan’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering since 2017, Lynch has overseen significant growth in both research expenditures and student enrollment. Under his leadership the department instituted a five-year action plan to support diversity, equity and inclusion, and launched the Pelham Scholars program, an academic-industry partnership that supports undergraduate and master's degree students committed to enhancing diversity by providing mentorship and one year of graduate-level tuition support.

He served from 2009-2014 as director of the $19.2 million National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Technology Innovation Program Center on Cyber-Enabled Wireless Monitoring Systems for the Protection of Deteriorating Infrastructure Systems.

Lynch’s appointment follows a national search chaired by Stefan Zauscher, professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and director of DMI, and conducted by a committee of faculty from across the university, with participation from staff and student leaders in the Pratt School of Engineering.