L-R: John J. Bartholdi, William B. Rouse, William J. Cook, Leon F. McGinnis, Jan Karel Lenstra, Chelsea "Chip" White

Editor's note: The following article was originally printed in the President's Report to the Georgia Tech Foundation.

It is no secret that the team with the best players wins, and that is true for academic disciplines as well as athletics. The quality of an education and research program depends on the quality of its faculty.

To build and maintain world-class programs, a university must hire bright young faculty, retain outstanding mid-career faculty whom other universities are looking to hire away, and attract "superstar" faculty who are recognized around the world as leaders and innovators in their fields.

Georgia Tech's School of Industrial and Systems Engineering had been ranked first in the nation for more than a decade, but its most eminent scholars were at the apex of their careers, and other universities also were aspiring to excellence. The Institute realized that if this program was to continue to lead the nation for the next decade or more, it was critical to increase its intellectual depth and plan for a succession of superstars.

The vehicle for achieving these goals was provided by The Campaign for Georgia Tech in the form of several endowed chairs. "Having one endowed chair for a program is nice," said Provost Jean-Lou Chameau, "but when you have several, that makes a big difference."

Recruiting for an endowed chair for the top program in the nation involves making a list of the six or ten top minds in the world in that discipline. Having several endowed chairs to fill in the same timeframe provides an opportunity to attract several of the big names on that list rather than just one. It also allows a university to take advantage of the appeal that face-to-face collaboration has for the best minds in the field.

"You can create a burst of synergy," Chameau explained. "One individual will accept a chair because of the opportunity to work with another outstanding individual from another university who is coming to Georgia Tech in the same timeframe."

That synergy is seen in the recruitment of William Cook from Princeton University to hold the Russ and Sammie Chandler Chair and Jan Lenstra from Eindoven in The Netherlands to hold the John P. Hunter Chair. Two of the world's most outstanding scholars in complex computational logistics problems, Cook and Lenstra were attracted by the opportunity to work together at Georgia Tech and coordinate the resources their chairs provide.

It was also a factor in attracting Bill Rouse to the Stewart School Chair and Chelsea "Chip" White to the Transportation and Logistics Chair. "We knew each other for 25 years and worked on related issues," said Rouse. "It was icing on the cake to finally be at the same institution."

The strategic use of endowed chairs by a school or department also can increase national prominence in a relatively short time. ISyE's new superstars will strengthen the School's already stellar reputation, propelling areas like engineering statistics to the forefront and helping to define new areas of expertise, such as a specialization in environmental and biological issues.

The synergy produced by several eminent scholars arriving at the same time also had a direct positive impact on recruiting for more than a half dozen other faculty positions. "People in the School are pinching themselves to make sure it's real, when they look at who is joining the school this year," Rouse said.

A new undergraduate initiative will create opportunities for students to interact with the outstanding new faculty who are joining the school. The School of Industrial and Systems Engineering also used endowed chairs to recognize the accomplishments of several outstanding mid-career faculty who might have otherwise been lured away by other universities, including John Bartholdi, who holds the Manhattan Associates Chair of Supply Chain Management, and Leon McGinnis, who is the Eugene C. Gwaltney Professor of Manufacturing Systems.

Although Chameau developed the strategy to use endowed chairs to elevate the already top-ranked ISyE to an even higher level, he credits recently retired School Chair John Jarvis and new Chair Bill Rouse with making the plan a reality.



• Summer 2003 Engineering Enterprise Table of Contents
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