University of Rhode Island’s College of Engineering has created a new Dean position that will enrich the graduate engineering program while doubling its research opportunities. Dr. Otto Gregory is the newly appointed Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies.
After 22 years as a professor of chemical engineering, Gregory was excited by the challenge to bring together large, multidisciplinary teams so the college can be a part of bigger research projects. Part of his job, he explained, is to bring together outside companies and partner them with professors at URI anxious for large research endeavors.
“You have to get the right match of people and talents,” Gregory said, adding that the right mix could help the College of Engineering bring in research funding from the National Science Foundation and other government agencies.
Gregory’s other goal as Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies is to increase graduate student enrollment. He said a proposal is also in the works to bring graduate scholarship money to the University and the College of Engineering.
“This position requires a very different skill set than teaching,” Gregory said. He said he’s working to connect people to opportunities and interface with companies and government agencies to bring a wide and impressive array of research prospects to URI.
Not only has Gregory accepted the new dean position, he is still teaching an undergraduate course in physical metallurgy.“There’s that one on one relationship that’s really critical,” he said of teaching. But, Gregory noted that his teaching experience will help him excel in his new job.
“You need to educate people on the nature of the research going on here,” he said, especially, he said, to double the College of Engineering’s research performance from $5 million to $10 million. “It’s a tall order to fill.”
“Graduate students are key,” he said, explaining that they can help support large research projects and in turn be a part of stimulating courses and research projects while URI helps support them financially. Gregory is married to Carrie Gregory, an Assistant to the Director of Compliance in the Research Office at URI and has a son Otto, who is a junior at URI.
“When I’m not in the lab or at school I’m usually playing squash,” he said and added that he is a member of a squash team that travels throughout Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts. Gregory received his BS and MS in Chemical Engineering from URI. He received his Ph.D. in Engineering from Brown University in 1983. From 1993 to 1996 he was the director of the Rhode Island Center for Thin Film and Interface Research, an NSF Center of Excellence and is currently the co-director of the Sensors and Surface Technology Partnership at URI. He also oversees the Thin Film Surface Analyzer Cost Center and Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope Cost Center in the College of Engineering.
During his tenure at URI, Dr. Gregory has developed a widely recognized research program in thin film material science, where his research has focused on thin film sensors and wide bandgap semiconductors. His work has been funded by the gas turbine engine industry, NASA and NSF for the last 18 years, the bulk of which has been dedicated to temperature sensors and strain sensors for advanced aerospace applications. His research has recently expanded into the area of solid oxide electrolyte fuel cells, where the Department of Energy is funding a project to instrument fuel cells for health monitoring purposes and to determine how stresses could adversely affect performance during normal fuel cell operation. Dr. Gregory’s work in the areas of group III nitride semiconductors and indium-tin-oxide semiconductor sensors is also widely recognized.
In addition to his high temperature sensor work, Dr. Gregory has several research projects underway in forensic science including the aging of dried blood spatter, the microstructural analysis of pipe bomb fragments and analysis of gunshot residue (GSR) and factors influencing GSR analysis.