Engineering Dean Continues to be a Leader

Dr. Dianne Dorland, Dean of Engineering

Dr. Dianne Dorland’s eyebrows knit together just a little when asked what she encountered as a woman becoming an engineer in the 1960s.

Though the dean of the College of Engineering at Rowan University, Glassboro, N.J, has an old newspaper clipping that touts the “Lady Engineer” and a black-and-white publicity photo an employer took of her conducting an experiment sometime in her 20s, breaking ground never seemed like a big deal to her — then or now.

“It just wasn’t an issue,” said Dorland, who was the sole woman studying in the Chemical Engineering Department at the South Dakota School of Science and Technology and one of the few women — if not the only woman — at the engineering firms where she worked more than three decades ago.

Real career opportunity

"I wanted a real career opportunity. I wanted to be independent and support myself well, something that many traditional fields for women didn’t offer. Engineering was both exciting and a challenge. I wanted that challenge,” she said.

That attitude — and a certain determination, along with a healthy IQ — could help explain in part the successful career she has had in industry and higher education and the recognition she has received locally, regional, nationally and internationally, including her most recent award: the Delaware Valley Engineers Week Council 2008 Engineer of the Year. (The Delaware Valley Engineers Week Council, comprising engineers in various fields from throughout the region, will recognize Dorland at the Engineers Week Banquet to be held February 23 at Drexel University. The group also will honor her at a proclamation luncheon on February 15 at the Loews Hotel in Philadelphia, which will feature citations from the president of the United States, the governors of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and the mayor of Philadelphia.)

A child of the South Dakota plains, Dorland decided in her teens to pursue engineering when an area engineering school actively recruited at her high school. “I looked at their recruitment information and I said ‘I can do this’,” she recalled.

Indeed she could. In addition to earning a B.S. and M.S. in chemical engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Dorland earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from West Virginia University.

Early in her career, she worked for Union Carbide Corporation in South Charleston, W.Va.; DuPont in Belle, W.Va.; and the Department of Energy (DOE) at Morgantown (W. Va.) Energy and Technology Center in areas such as butane oxidation, nylon intermediates and in-situ coal gasification.

Entering education

After her DOE stint, Dorland joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota Duluth, which was starting a new Chemical Engineering Department in 1986. Four years later, she was the department’s chair.

In 2000, Dorland, of Harrison Township, was named dean of Rowan University’s College of Engineering — one of a dozen or so women in the country in such a position.

At Rowan, the newest engineering school in the Delaware Valley, she oversees four engineering programs (chemical, civil and environmental, electrical and computer, and mechanical engineering) that offer a highly innovative, multidisciplinary, project-based learning environment and a unique Engineering Clinic sequence, starting students working on hands-on projects as soon as they enter the program.

The engineering faculty are nationally recognized as educators who integrate engineering practice and education to better prepare students for entry into a rapidly changing and highly competitive global marketplace. The engineering students work side by side with their professors on projects funded by small and large corporations as well as agencies such as the National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Federal Aviation Administration.

Rowan Engineering recognized

Under Dorland’s leadership, Rowan Engineering has been widely recognized for its undergraduate programs. The 2008 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s “America's Best Colleges” ranks the College 16th among 172 peer institutions whose highest degree is a bachelor’s or master’s degree. The four engineering disciplines rank even higher, with Chemical 2nd, Civil & Environmental 11th, Electrical & Computer 8th, and Mechanical 9th.

Dorland represents Rowan on the New Jersey Consortium for Engineering Education, a group working to promote science, math, engineering and technology education and to incorporate engineering curriculum standards in secondary education. Under her leadership, Rowan recently became the New Jersey State Affiliate for Project Lead the Way, a program to encourage high school students to pursue engineering and technology careers.

Accolades

An author and active presenter, the mother of two and grandmother of one has published or presented on engineering and engineering education topics around the world. Among her many accolades, she was featured in the 2006 book from the Extraordinary Women Engineers Project, “Changing Our World,” with her work on mercury abatement in wastewater from the paper industry. She was elected to the Academy of Chemical Engineers at West Virginia University and received the Distinguished Alumni award from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Most recently, she was named the 2008 ConocoPhillips Lecturer in a series designed to celebrate and stimulate advances in chemical engineering education.

In 2003, she served as president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, of which she has been a member for almost four decades. Dorland also is active in the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and was elected to the Executive Committee of the ASEE Engineering Deans Council in 2006.

A licensed professional engineer in the State of New Jersey who has held licenses in Minnesota and West Virginia, Dorland has enjoyed her career and her work with young people.

“I recently judged the Future City Competition in Philadelphia, a stimulating engineering challenge for seventh and eighth grade students,” Dorland said. “I was excited to hear their vision of what engineers can accomplish in the future, and as an educator, I’m proud to be able to empower them to succeed. That’s what engineering education is about, solving problems and empowering students to be successful.”