Ben Bahr, a Boeing Endowed Professor of Manufacturing and the director of National Center for Green Technologies and Education at Cal State Long Beach, has been named the College of Engineering’s first associate dean for research and graduate studies. His appointment begins July 16.
Bahr has years of experience as teacher, researcher and university department chair to the college’s expanding research and graduate programs. He will provide academic and administrative leadership in facilitating research, scholarship and creative activities.
“I see tremendous potential here in the College of Engineering for major innovation through research,” Bahr says. “I am very excited about this opportunity to help make advanced research and graduate programs a reality.”
Bahr’s research career includes a diverse range of projects, with the two most recent being a Boeing-funded investigation into man/robot oral communication and task execution, as well as the development of a much-needed remotely operated robotic system for nuclear radiation detection. He has supervised more than 60 graduate dissertations and master’s theses and enjoys helping students become gifted researchers.
Prior to Cal State Long Beach, Bahr served as professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Wichita State University. He holds doctoral and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering and a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, all of which he earned at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.