Associate Provost Vincent Manno will in July leave Tufts to join Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering as its next provost and dean of faculty.
Manno decided to take the position because he hopes to have a large-scale impact on engineering education.
"It was a hard decision, but I was offered an exciting opportunity to help be part of transforming engineering education, not only at one school but nationally or perhaps even internationally," Manno said.
Manno, who is also a professor of mechanical engineering and will continue to teach the subject at Olin, said the college takes an innovative approach to engineering instruction.
"I've always been very interested in engineering education, and the fact that Olin is trying to basically shift the paradigm of how undergraduate engineering education is structured was really the exciting possibility for me," he said.
Manno has been on Tufts' faculty since the fall of 1984. He served as chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering between 1993 and 2001 and in 2002 took the position of associate dean of engineering.
Manno said Olin, which is located in Needham, Mass., was an attractive choice because of its strong partnerships with peer universities both in the United States and abroad.
"Olin is not only a school unto itself but it has partnerships with domestic [universities] and is developing partnerships with international universities who are looking to revise and transform their own education programs," he said.
As provost and dean of faculty at Olin, Manno will serve as its chief academic officer, responsible for programs overseeing academic and student life.
Provost and Senior Vice President Jamshed Bharucha said Manno has had a positive influence at Tufts, citing specifically his work on environmentally focused programs. Bharucha cited in particular Manno's role in bringing the Stockholm Environmental Institute, an international research organization, to Tufts' campus.
"Through Vin Manno's work, they decided to locate their Boston area office right here at Tufts," Bharucha said. "It has provided opportunities for our students and for our faculty and really taken our environmental research and study to the next level."
Bharucha also noted Manno's direction of the team composed of Tufts and Boston Architectural College students that participated in the U.S. Department of Energy's 2009 Solar Decathlon.
"It was a project whereby Tufts students were in charge of designing and implementing a solar house, so they built it right on campus and then transported it to Washington, where it was exhibited on the Washington Mall as part of a contest," Bharucha said. "That was through Professor Manno's leadership."
Professor of Mechanical Engineering Chris Rogers said Manno has had a stabilizing influence on the department during his time at Tufts, praising both his administrative abilities and his willingness to connect with students.
"I think his footprint as far as we've seen is the people that have gotten hired within the past 10 or 15 years, the fact that the department is running smoothly and that he's done a lot for the whole university, too, in getting more interdisciplinary graduate research programs and joint proposals," Rogers said.
Manno said his time at Tufts has been a formative experience.
"It's a place where I think I really grew as a person, as a professor, and gained so much of the administrative experience that I know I will need when I take on this new role," Manno said. "Most importantly, I've made a terrific number of close friends, and they will last through my career."
