Job Description

Salary Commensurate with education and experience.
Web Announcement
Department Chair, Department of Bioengineering

The George Mason University Department of Bioengineering within the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC) invites applications for the position of Department Chair. George Mason University has a strong institutional commitment to the achievement of excellence and diversity among its faculty and staff, and strongly encourages candidates to apply who will enrich Mason’s academic and culturally inclusive environment.

Responsibilities:

Reporting to the Dean of the College, the Department Chair is the chief academic and administrative leader for the department, and serves as a key member of the College’s leadership team. The Chair of Bioengineering will provide vision and leadership to advance the department, positioning the department as a leader in innovation and education in bioengineering. S/he will guide a robust scholarship and research agenda, promote excellence in undergraduate and graduate education, including the development of collaborative academic programs, and grow the proportion of women and underrepresented minorities in the educational programs. The Chair will be responsible for establishing a collaborative and collegial relationship among the College’s constituent departments.

Required Qualifications:

Applicants must have received a PhD in Bioengineering, Biomedical Engineering, or a related field, and qualify to be a tenured professor in the Department. Competitive candidates will have an outstanding record in research with a strong record of funding, along with a genuine understanding of the teaching mission and the importance of providing undergraduate and graduate students with the highest quality educational experience. A demonstrated commitment to the effective mentoring of junior faculty is essential. The next Department Chair must have the leadership skills and vision to advance the Department to new heights, which includes a strong sense of where the field is headed and an understanding of its sub-disciplines. S/he will have unassailable personal and academic integrity, strong oral and written communication skills, and a focus on openness and transparency.

About the Department:

Mason’s Bioengineering department, https://bioengineering.gmu.edu, has 13 faculty members whose research can be divided into four pillars: biomedical imaging and devices, computational biomedicine, biomaterials and nanomedicine, and neurotechnology and computational neuroscience. Newly constructed research facilities in these focus areas opened in 2018. Bioengineering faculty research is funded by a number of federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, and the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. These agencies and other sources bring the department’s active research funding total to more than $20 million. Undergraduate enrollment in the thriving ABET-accredited undergraduate program totals more than 210 students. A relatively new, rapidly growing PhD program and a new master’s program (launched in 2018) complete the academic offerings. The department has several growing partnerships with regional centers such as the Inova Center for Personalized Health (ICPH https://www.inova.org/inova-center-for-personalized-health) which includes the Center for Surgery and Bioengineering Research and the Genomics and Bioinformatics Research Institute.

Mason Engineering and Computing: All Together Different

The College of Engineering and Computing at George Mason University is comprised of the Volgenau School of Engineering and the School of Computing. The College is a fast-growing force for innovation in research and education. Ranked nationally in the top 100 in both undergraduate and graduate education, the College boasts more than 10,000 students in 37 undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral degree programs, including several first-in-the-nation offerings. Of the 302 full-time faculty who comprise the College, 93 are tenured, 75 are tenure-track, 82 are instructional faculty, and 52 are research faculty. As part of a nationally ranked research university, its research teams expended more than $70 million in sponsored research awards last year and has projects with over $400 million in current and anticipated awards. Located in the heart of Northern Virginia’s technology corridor, Mason Engineering stands out for its research in many leading areas including artificial intelligence, data analytics engineering, cybersecurity engineering, biomedical imaging and devices, autonomous systems, 5G communications, systems architectures, computational biomedicine, community-based healthcare, advanced materials and manufacturing, sustainable infrastructure, and more. The College highly encourages multidisciplinary research and provides faculty with opportunities to work with other disciplines.

George Mason University is the largest and most diverse public research university in Virginia, with an enrollment of 40,000 students studying in over 200 degree programs. Mason is an innovative, entrepreneurial institution with national distinction in a range of academic fields. It was classified as an R1 research institution in 2016 by the Carnegie Classifications of Institutes of Higher Education. Mason is located in the city of Fairfax in Northern Virginia at the doorstep of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, with unmatched geographical access to a number of federal agencies and national laboratories. Northern Virginia is also home to one of the largest concentrations of high-tech firms in the nation, providing excellent opportunities for interaction with industry. Fairfax is consistently rated as being among the best places to live in the country, and has an outstanding local public school system.

In conjunction with Amazon’s decision to establish a second headquarters in Northern Virginia, the Commonwealth of Virginia announced a multi-year plan to invest in the growth of degree programs in computing. George Mason University has committed to accelerate its plans to increase its capacity in engineering and computing. Some of the university’s exciting plans are the launch of the Institute for Digital InnovAtion, a university think tank and incubator to serve the digital economy, and the expansion of its Arlington Campus with a 360,000 square foot building­–Fuse at Mason Square. Fuse will become the nexus of Mason’s transdisciplinary research, entrepreneurship, and academic program efforts in digital innovation, and will unite the public and private sectors in a collaborative alliance to address the world’s grand challenges.
Special Instructions to Applicants
For full consideration, applicants must apply for position number F9261Z at https://jobs.gmu.edu/; complete and submit the online application; and upload (1) a complete CV with publications, (2) a statement of professional goals including your perspective on teaching and research (to attach as ‘Other Doc’), (3) a statement on what diversity and inclusion means to you (to attach as ‘Other Doc’), and (4) the names of three professional references with contact information. The review of applications will begin January 19, 2023 and continue until the position is filled.