Oct. 19, 2011

NDSU Provost names UGPTI interim director; launches national search

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Canan Bilen-Green, professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering, has been named interim director of the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute at NDSU, Provost Bruce Rafert announced today.

A national search for a permanent director also is under way. Rafert named Gary Smith, dean of the College of Engineering and Architecture, to be chair of the search. The search committee will be named in the next few days, and Rafert expects the search to conclude around March 1.

Bilen-Green has exceptional credentials for the role, Rafert said. “Dr. Bilen-Green brings a wealth of experience to this position—having served on a number of projects with UGPTI members, as executive director of the NSF Advance FORWARD project, and as a person with a deep understanding of policy implementation and use.”

Her role will be to work closely with UGPTI staff to transition a large number of complex research and educational projects, which are key to the institute’s operation.  “The primary source of financial support for more than 90 percent of the institute’s activities is obtained via competitive grants and contracts—many of which are in key phases of proposal preparation—with impending due dates,” Rafert said.

Bilen-Green earned her doctorate at the University of Wyoming  and has been with NDSU since 1998. She teaches a wide variety of industrial and manufacturing engineering, transportation and logistics, and managerial logistics courses. Her research is in quality management in higher education, statistical process control and applied operations research.  Since coming to NDSU, she has twice been a summer NASA research fellow.

In addition to extensive service roles, Bilen-Green leads the NDSU Advance FORWARD grant project, an NSF funded effort aimed specifically at advancing women faculty in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and at transforming the climate to one that more fully supports and nurtures all people in the organization to develop to their fullest potential. As executive director of the project, she provides daily oversight, managing programs, directing research programs, supervising personnel, monitoring budget and assisting other institutions with similar grants.

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