Delaware U. names Dennis Assanis its new president

A mechanical engineer who has served as provost of Stony Brook University since 2011 will become the next president of the University of Delaware.

Dennis Assanis, who has collected five patents over his career and specializes in improving automobile fuel economy and lessening emissions, takes over July 1. His appointment was approved by the board of trustees Wednesday.

Assanis, who was a professor and administrator at the University of Michigan for 17 years, said meeting the needs of a diverse student body would be a priority.

"We have to listen to the needs of the students," said Assanis, 56, a native of Greece who has spent the last 35 years in the United States and long ago became a citizen. "This is the most important thing. We have to customize the education to the diversity of the needs of the students. We need to celebrate the learning differences."

The new president said he also would focus on building and maintaining a strong faculty.

"The faculty is the mind of the institution, not only the mind but the spirit," he said.

Assanis replaces Patrick T. Harker, who left to become chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Nancy M. Targett will continue to serve as acting president until Assanis arrives.

John R. Cochran, chairman of the board of trustees, called Assanis "a distinguished scholar and an inspiring educator."

"I am confident," Cochran said, "that his personal commitment to the power of education and his extensive experience in the classroom and the laboratory will serve the University of Delaware well in the years to come."

Assanis is an expert in fundamental and applied studies of internal-combustion engines and energy systems, and was inducted into the National Academy of Engineers in 2008.

At Stony Brook, a State University of New York campus on Long Island, he has worked to improve student retention and led a $20 million fund-raising effort to create an endowed Institute for Advanced Computational Science for interdisciplinary research. Through his efforts, Stony Brook also became the first American university to offer degrees in South Korea, at the Songdo Global University.

At the University of Michigan, he led the Michigan Phoenix Energy Institute, was founding director of the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center for Clean Vehicles, and served as director of the Walter E. Lay Automotive Engineering Laboratory. He also chaired the mechanical engineering department, among other posts.

He has been described as a proponent of online education for more than two decades.

Assanis received his bachelor's degree in marine engineering from Newcastle University in England and four graduate degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology: a master's in naval architecture and marine engineering, a master's in mechanical engineering, a master's in management from the Sloan School of Management, and a doctorate in power and propulsion.

His wife, Eleni, runs a consulting company. They have two adult sons, one an entrepreneur and the other who is following in Assanis' footsteps, pursuing a doctoral degree in mechanical engineering at Michigan.

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