Academic Deans

Karen Kashmanian Oates, PhD, Dean of Arts and Sciences

Karen Kashmanian Oates, PhD, has been named WPI’s first Peterson Family Dean of Arts and Sciences.

As the inaugural arts and sciences dean at WPI, Oates oversees seven academic departments—Biology and Biotechnology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Computer Science, Humanities and Arts, Mathematical Sciences, Physics, and Social Science and Policy Studies--as well as interdisciplinary programs in Environmental Science and Interactive Media and Game Development.

She is responsible for helping to promote WPI's growing investment in the life sciences, which includes the Gateway Park development, the Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center, and the George I. Alden Life Sciences and Bioengineering Educational Center.

I am excited to be joining a university whose mission is so well aligned with my own ideals, and where students are able to put their knowledge to use to solve meaningful problems that are of consequence to the communities they serve. I look forward to working with the faculty and students here to build on the innovative work already under way in the arts and sciences.

The former deputy director of undergraduate education at the National Science Foundation's Division of Undergraduate Studies, Oates earned her PhD in biochemistry at George Washington University. She began her academic and research career at George Mason University, before being called to a number of increasingly prominent leadership positions. As an associate dean at George Mason, she was centrally involved in creating its New American College environment.

She is also an award-winning teacher. More recent interests and publications have centered on women's health generally, faculty development, service learning, business-higher education partnerships, and K-12 science and mathematics education.

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Mark Rice, PhD, Dean of Business

Mark P. Rice, PhD, has been named WPI’s first Dean of the School of Business.

Rice takes the helm during an exciting time in WPI history as the former Department of Management has been elevated to a School of Business. With full AACSB accreditation, WPI's business programs have gained significant stature. Its MBA program was recently recognized by BusinessWeek as the best part-time MBA program in the nation, and by Enterpreneur.com as a top 10 program with an emphasis on entrepreneurship.

As Dean, Rice is responsible for creating opportunities that link the School of Business more closely with other parts of the Institution, generating occasions where business will intersect with engineering, science, and technology.

WPI and I share a relentless commitment to innovation. This is a unique opportunity to shape further WPI's outstanding programs that combine business acumen with technological, engineering, and scientific innovation to meet the evolving needs and opportunities of our global, technological society. I feel fortunate to be joining a university and a business program with such an outstanding foundation of academic excellence.

Rice comes to WPI from Babson College, where he served for six years as the Murata Dean of the F. W. Olin Graduate School of Business and held an appointment as the Frederic C. Hamilton Professor for Free Enterprise. Prior to joining Babson, Rice was a member of the leadership team at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's School of Management and Technology. During his career, Rice has led initiatives to dramatically expand the scope of entrepreneurship to include technological, social, franchising, female, family, and global entrepreneurship and innovation.

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Selçuk I. Güçeri, PhD, Dean of Engineering

Selçuk I. Güçeri, PhD, joins WPI as its inaugural Bernard M. Gordon Dean of Engineering.

As the first Dean of Engineering, Güçeri provides leadership and vision to WPI’s wide-ranging, and highly-acclaimed, engineering programs. Güçeri joins Mark P. Rice, PhD, who was recently was appointed Dean of WPI's new School of Business; and Karen Kashmanian Oates, PhD, the inaugural Dean of Arts and Sciences.

Güçeri , Rice, and Oates work together, and with the faculty across the Institute, to advance WPI's distinctive undergraduate programs, with their emphasis on project-enriched collaborative learning. The deans also work to advance research and graduate education in such important fields as alternative energy, advanced materials, regenerative medicine, robotics, and information security, and novel developments across the disciplines.

The only way our society can effectively address serious challenges is if the engineers we educate learn to work and collaborate with their colleagues in business, policy making, and other endeavors directly impacting our world.

Güçeri spent the previous 10 years as dean of engineering at Drexel University. Under his leadership, Drexel engineering nearly tripled its research funding, significantly increased the number of women faculty and students and the degree of student diversity, and fostered more than a dozen technology-based start-up companies.

An accomplished scholar, Güçeri has authored or co-authored over 100 publications in the fields of engineering education, manufacturing, rapid prototyping, and bio-fabrication. He earned BS and MS degrees in mechanical engineering at Middle East Technical University in Ankara and completed a PhD in mechanical and aerospace engineering as a NATO Fellow at North Carolina State University.