Miaoulis works to enhance RWU engineering program
The sounds of construction and flutters of wind-swept white tarps draped around the soon-to-be SECCM lab are no longer a loud distraction. They are now the sounds of hope.
Engineering students and faculty are excited for the future of their program with the arrival of RWU’s President-Designate Ioannis Miaoulis — the former president and director of the Boston Museum of Science.
“It’s going to attract more women to the school,” sophomore mechanical engineering major Kristen Norray of Berne, N.Y. said.
Beyond his experience at the museum, Miaoulis previously served as dean of Tufts University School of Engineering for 16 years — his alma mater.
His success in diversifying STEM programs brought more women to the faculty at Tufts, and encouraged female students, including his two daughters, to pursue the traditionally male-dominated field of engineering.
Professor of Engineering Dr. Janet Baldwin attended Tufts University around the same time Miaoulis earned his Ph.D. on that campus. She was the first female faculty member in the RWU School of Engineering, where she paved the way for more women colleagues. The civil engineering faculty, she said, is 100 percent female — something she takes a lot of pride in.
“There is no other school in this country that you will find that’s the case,” Baldwin said.
One of Miaoulis’s main goals is to keep alumni and current students a priority. Baldwin said that Tufts University’s interest in alumni is at the forefront and she expects Miaoulis to transition this idea to RWU.
“I was definitely kept informed of everything that was going on at Tufts,” Baldwin said. “I would love to see that happen here at Roger Williams.”
