The Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE) has elected Evangelos Hadjimichael, Ph.D., founding dean of Fairfield University’s School of Engineering, to membership in its select organization. A Woodbridge, Conn., resident, Dr. Hadjimichael is now professor of Physics and Engineering at Fairfield.

The Connecticut Academy is patterned after the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in Washington D.C. The major objective of the Connecticut Academy is to provide information and advice to the government, industry, and people of Connecticut, and to encourage the young in science, engineering, and technology. Membership in the Connecticut Academy is limited to just 400 persons.

"I am very pleased to have been elected to membership in CASE; I see this election not just as an honor, but primarily as an opportunity for me to serve further the interests of the State of Connecticut," Dr. Hadjimichael said.

Dr. Hadjimichael was instrumental in merging the Bridgeport Engineering Institute with Fairfield University, thus establishing the School of Engineering, for which he was the founding dean. During his 15-year tenure as dean he established academic alliances that continue to provide a seamless pathway for community college students into the School of Engineering, and he introduced numerous programmatic and curricular innovations, including an Assessment and Continuous Quality Improvement Process (AQUIP), which proved to be invaluable in the School gaining re-accreditation in 1999 and 2005 from the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. Further, he shepherded the establishment of a statewide nanotechnology minor linking the University with research institutions.

"Dr. Hadjimichael has been an invaluable member of the Fairfield University community for over 45 years," noted Jack Beal, Ph.D., dean of Fairfield's School of Engineering. "He has been an outstanding faculty member in the classroom and mentor to our students He has been an able and collegial administrator at the University. But most of all, he has been a valuable colleague and friend to all of us here at Fairfield and across the entire state of Connecticut. He is richly deserving of this honor."

After earning his doctorate in physics from the University of California at Berkeley, Dr. Hadjimichael did a three-year post-doctoral fellowship at Yale, and was subsequently appointed to the faculty at Fairfield. His research in nuclear and elementary particle physics was supported by NSF grants, without interruption, from 1972 to 1996. He served on the Advisory Council on Accreditation, Board of Higher Education, Connecticut, for six years, and was vice-chair and chair of the Council. In 2007-2008, he headed a 15-person inter-institutional group that developed an undergraduate curriculum in nanotechnology for statewide use. He was recently appointed to the Planning Commission for Higher Education, State of Connecticut.

The induction will take place in May at the Academy's annual dinner meeting.

Posted On: 03-07-2013 11:03 AM

Volume: 45 Number: 214