Sandra Woods was appointed Dean of the College of Engineering on July 30, 2012. As dean, she will lead a new initiative at OSU on industry relations as executive associate vice president for research. As dean of OSU’s College of Engineering, Woods will take over the leadership of a college with a total of 253 faculty and staff and more than 5,200 students.
Woods was dean of Colorado State's College of Engineering since July 1, 2006, during which time the college received the Women in Engineering Program Advocates Network “Women in Engineering Initiative Award” for its success in improving gender diversity within the engineering program. In 2010, the Colorado section of the American Council of Engineering Companies awarded Woods the General Palmer Award as the “Outstanding Engineer in Industry” for her leadership and contributions.
She previously was on the engineering faculty at Oregon State, where she also helped launch the university’s distance and continuing education programs. Woods was on the OSU faculty from 1984 to 2001.
After graduating from Michigan State University, Woods earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in civil engineering from the University of Washington and joined the OSU faculty in 1984. She is an environmental engineer who specializes in the bioremediation and biotransformation of environmental contaminants, for which she received a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1985.
The College of Engineering
The College of Engineering is all about exceptional people working together to generate the bold new ideas that drive the innovation necessary to improve the world.
The College of Engineering at OSU is taking aim at becoming one of the top 25 engineering programs in the United States. That goal is in response to state political, industry, and education leaders, who say a top college would help attract and retain technology-based companies, keep Oregon's best students in-state, and provide the research and training expertise that Oregon's high tech industry needs to remain competitive.
This effort was recently boosted by a $20 million gift to the College of Engineering from Martin Kelley, OSU civil engineering graduate and retired vice president and chief engineer of Peter Kiewit Sons', Inc. This gift is the largest cash donation in the university's history. It is a significant boost in the quest to raise $120 million and build a top-tier engineering school by the year 2010.
