Emily Carter, dean of School of Engineering and Applied Science, to step down

Emily Carter, who has been the Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) for the past three years, will be leaving the University at the end of the year to become the executive vice chancellor and provost of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her new appointment begins Sept. 1, 2019, and the search for a new SEAS dean is already underway.

According to the University’s Office of Engineering Communications, Carter will become UCLA’s “second-ranking officer and serve as the chief operating and academic officer,” a position meant to “[bring] broad vision and executive leadership to campus-wide policy, planning, initiatives and operations.”

When Carter formally becomes executive vice chancellor and provost at UCLA, she hopes to implement some of the practices and principles that she has embraced at the University.

“At UCLA I will be the chief operating and academic officer with an enormous opportunity to positively impact the education of 45,000 students and to champion research initiatives of critical importance for humanity,” Carter wrote in an email to SEAS faculty members. “I already see many opportunities to bring lessons and ideals from Princeton to UCLA, which I think is a fitting way of broadening Princeton’s impact.”

Until a replacement is found, electrical engineering professor H. Vincent Poor GS ’77 will function as interim dean and lead the search committee for a new permanent dean. Prior to Carter’s appointment, Poor served as dean from 2006 to 2016.

During her tenure as dean, Carter promoted the pursuit of diversity among SEAS students and faculty members, implementing new resources and appointing Julie Yun as associate dean for diversity and inclusion in 2018. In addition, Carter worked with other University administrators to propose a location for the engineering school’s expansion as part of the University’s 10-year plan.

“Emily Carter has made extraordinary contributions to Princeton as a scientist, mentor, center director, and dean,” said President Christopher Eisgruber ’83. “Though we will miss having Emily as our colleague at Princeton, we look forward to applauding her accomplishments as she returns to UCLA.”

Carter joined the University faculty in 2004, beginning as a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and applied and computational mathematics before becoming the founding director of the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment in 2010. Carter retained this role until being promoted in 2016 to the engineering school dean.