Dr. Eduardo Misawa Named Acting Leader of the Engineering Research Centers Program
Dr. Theresa Maldonado, Division Director of Engineering Education and Centers, is pleased to announce Dr. Eduardo Misawa as the Acting Leader of the Engineering Research Centers (ERC) Program, effective October 28, 2013. He succeeds Ms. Lynn Preston, who has served as ERC Leader for the past 25 years and as the architect of this program since 1984. Ms. Preston will serve full-time as the Deputy Director of the Division of Engineering Education and Centers (EEC), a post she has held concurrently for many years and which now will involve an expanded portfolio of Division management roles. Dr. Misawa will serve as Acting ERC Program Leader while a national search is conducted for this position.
About Lynn Preston
Ms. Preston was one of two founding directors of the ERC Program, which was initiated in 1984, and she has led the program since 1988. Under her leadership, the ERCs have changed the culture of academic engineering. In the process they have introduced a culture of strategic technology-focused research, revolutionized engineering education, and produced a new and diverse generation of graduates who are creative, highly adaptable, adept at innovation, and successful in technology leadership. Over this period, Ms. Preston introduced a number of management innovations that were key to the successful evolution of this ground-breaking program.
As a result, after more than a quarter century the ERC Program continues to be vigorous, innovative, and highly productive, with currently 17 centers representing a combined total of 75 academic partner institutions. With a cumulative federal investment of a little over one billion dollars, the total return on that investment through commercialization of industrial products and processes derived from ERC-developed technology is estimated at over $50 billion. The return on investment in terms of graduates who have founded and/or led companies or major research labs is inestimable—for example, through FY 2013 a total of 171 startup firms have spun out of ERCs, many of them founded by ERC graduates.
In recognition of her innovative leadership of the ERC Program, Ms. Preston has received several honors and awards at the highest levels of the Federal government as well as from NSF and the engineering community generally. For example, in 2003 she was honored by the National Society of Professional Engineers as the NSF Engineer of the Year for her contributions to engineering research and education.
Lynn Preston’s contributions at NSF extend well beyond the ERC program. She initiated the Network for Computational Nanotechnology (NCN) in 2002. NCN and its cyber platform, nanoHUB.org, each year serve over 260,000 users worldwide as a vital resource for nanoscience and nanotechnology. She has been instrumental in bringing an enhanced focus on engineering and technology to pre-college teachers and students. In her role as full-time Deputy Division Director, she will continue to support the ERC Program, the NCN, and other engineering centers and education programs within the Division.
About Eduardo Misawa
Newly named Acting ERC Program Leader Dr. Eduardo Misawa has B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and a Ph.D. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, all in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in Dynamics and Control. Dr. Misawa’s research expertise includes nonlinear dynamics and control, vibrations, mechatronics, nanotechnology, fluid power control, bioinformatics, and biotechnology.
Dr. Misawa joined the EEC Division in summer 2013 from the Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI) Division in the ENG Directorate. In 2012 he served as Acting Deputy Director of the Office of CyberInfrastructure (OCI), which is now the Advanced CyberInfrastructure (ACI) Division in the Computer & Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate. Prior to coming to EEC, he was a Program Director (Engineering) for the cross-Directorate Computational and Data-Enabled Science and Engineering (CDS&E) program and a member of the team responsible for the cross-cutting NSF Software Infrastructure for Sustained Innovation initiative. His primary role in the CMMI Division was as the director of the Dynamical Systems Program. His initial responsibility in the EEC Division was to serve as a lead program director for two ERCs and the Cyber Platform component of the Network for Computational Nanotechnology program. Now, in addition to leading the ERC program, Dr. Misawa assumes Ms. Preston’s responsibilities as the Leader of the NCN program.
This broad scope of experience has prepared Dr. Misawa well for leadership of the wide-ranging ERC Program. He is working closely with Ms. Preston during the leadership transition period.