Each chancellor who has served UCLA has left behind a unique
legacy, and Albert Carnesale is no exception. As UCLA’s
eighth chief executive, Carnesale has left a positive imprint on
the campus that will be felt for years to come.
Early on, Chancellor Carnesale identified an essential strategy
for the UCLA campus: Building UCLA’s multidisciplinary
strengths would be one key to achieving greatness.
Advances in engineering ““ and indeed, in every field
““ increasingly involve researchers from diverse disciplines.
This important shift is being driven by the need to address
progressively more complex problems that cut across traditional
disciplines.
With Carnesale at the helm, UCLA, in collaboration with UC Santa
Barbara, won the statewide competition to establish the California
NanoSystems Institute, which will enhance California’s
economy by focusing on technological advances in collaboration with
business and industry. Carnesale has supported many
multidisciplinary initiatives, including those in bio-science and
human genetics.
The formation of UCLA Engineering’s Center for Embedded
Network Sensing, which brings together engineering, computer
science, biology, earth sciences, education and public health to
monitor the environment, is yet another example of this
forward-thinking strategy.
Under Carnesale’s leadership, UCLA has risen to the top
tier of the nation’s research universities, successfully
competing with elite private institutions that have greater
resources from higher tuition, fees and monumental endowments built
up over time. UCLA also doubled its research support and
consistently places among the top five research universities in the
nation in this area.
Carnesale also has made it a priority to recruit a diverse and
talented faculty and student body, to the betterment of the entire
institution. In June 2004, the chancellor announced a special
five-year, $250 million initiative, “Ensuring Academic
Excellence,” to raise funds for professorships, fellowships
and scholarships to help recruit and retain top faculty and
students. By July 2005, more than $100 million had been raised
toward that goal ““ a strong testament to Carnesale’s
leadership.
The chancellor’s legacy also reflects a positive change in
UCLA’s student body. The academic qualifications of our
students have increased significantly during his tenure. UCLA now
ranks first in the UC system in student selectivity, graduation and
retention rates. It also has become a much more residential
campus.
Personally, I can also say many of the initiatives undertaken at
the School of Engineering have been championed by Carnesale ““
the active fostering of partnerships with university, industry and
government colleagues through forums such as those held by the
Wireless Internet for Mobile Enterprise Consortium; research
conducted for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Grand Challenge, a high-stakes autonomous vehicle race; as well as
our six multimillion-dollar interdisciplinary research centers in
space exploration, wireless sensor systems and nanoengineering,
funded by federal and private agencies.
Under Carnesale’s watch, our new engineering building has
taken shape ““ which will provide state-of-the-art
laboratories and space to expand and strengthen our research
capabilities. He has also continued to champion other critical
initiatives on behalf of the school.
An active teacher and lecturer, Carnesale holds appointments in
public affairs as well as engineering. Following his sabbatical, we
look forward to welcoming Carnesale back to the school, where his
expertise in energy and national security issues will be extremely
valuable.
As educators, we attempt to tackle the important challenges that
face society and to do our very best to educate the next generation
of great thinkers. Though he steps down as chancellor,
Carnesale’s important legacy is now part of that great UCLA
tradition.
He is an unassuming person who has led the campus with
excellence. Though his leadership will be missed, his contributions
will not be forgotten. New and old, together we are shaping the
future of UCLA, Southern California and the world.
Dhir was named dean of UCLA’s Henry Samueli School of
Engineering and Applied Science in March 2003.