A little more about Eric Kaler

University of Minnesota 

President to be...

From the University of Delaware Daily:

Sept. 4, 2007--Eric W. Kaler, dean of UD's College of Engineering and Elizabeth Inez Kelley Professor of Chemical Engineering, has been appointed provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Stony Brook University. He will become the school's ninth provost in October.

Stony Brook President Shirley Strum Kenny said, "Eric Kaler is just the right person at just the right time to lead the development and expansion of our academic programs in the 21st century. As a scholar, scientist and administrator, Eric is extremely well-prepared to take on this important role at a world class university."

"I am extraordinarily excited to take on this challenging position,” Kaler said. "Stony Brook has in a very short time emerged as one of the country's leading research universities, and I look forward to helping that growth continue and accelerate."

"My leadership style has always to been to help get people the resources they need and then to let them work,” he said. "At the same time, I think all administrators should focus on making sure processes are as simple, straightforward, and transparent as they can be."

David Roselle, UD president emeritus, called Kaler an "accomplished scholar and administrator” and said that his legacy at Delaware "is the assistance and guidance he provided to many of his engineering colleagues so that they could succeed.” Roselle added that Kaler's "new colleagues at Stony Brook have every reason to be optimistic about his appointment as provost.”

"Eric and I have worked closely together for nearly 20 years,” Mark Barteau, Robert L. Pigford Chair of Chemical Engineering and former chairperson of UD's chemical engineering department, said. "He has led throughout that time by keeping the focus firmly on whatever we were trying to accomplish, and fostering a strong sense of teamwork among those working with him. Serving as department chair under him was a real pleasure-he wasn't a superior or an adversary, but a colleague in trying to advance the college and the university.”

"Eric Kaler is an outstanding academic leader and an accomplished and experienced administrator,” UD Provost Dan Rich said. "He has all the professional and personal qualities one looks for in a provost. He has an insatiable intellectual curiosity, exceptional problem-solving skills and the analytical ability to engage the full range of complex university issues. He also possesses great interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate effectively with the diverse constituencies of the University.”