Georgia Tech College of Engineering Dean and Southern Company Chair Gary S. May has announced leadership changes that affect several units within the college.

Robert J. Butera, professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), has been named as interim associate dean for research and innovation in the College of Engineering (CoE) Dean’s Office, effective July 1. Butera also holds a joint appointment in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME). He previously served as director of the Interdisciplinary Bioengineering Graduate Program from 2005-2008 and as faculty director of Graduate Studies at Georgia Tech from 2009-2011.

A member of the ECE faculty since 1999, Butera was also co-director of the Grand Challenges Living Learning Community from 2012-2015. Since 2014, he has co-directed the Neural Engineering Research Center, which brings together neural engineering researchers from across campus.

Stephen P. DeWeerth, who has served as Tech’s CoE associate dean for research and innovation since 2013, has been named dean of the College of Engineering at Lehigh University, effective September 1. A member of the Georgia Tech faculty since 1991, DeWeerth is a professor in both ECE and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering.

From 2010-2013, DeWeerth served as the founding chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, and he has also been the director of Graduate Studies for the joint Georgia Tech/Emory University Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. program. DeWeerth has been serving as BME’s interim department chair, and he will be succeeded in that role by C. Ross Ethier, who is a professor and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar.

“Rob will do an outstanding job in his new role as interim associate dean for the College of Engineering, and we are grateful to him for stepping into this complex and important role,” said Steven W. McLaughlin, Steve W. Chaddick School Chair and Professor. “We also extend our congratulations to Steve as he embarks on the next phase of his career, and we wish him much success in the years to come.”

Read more about the leadership changes that affect the CoE Dean’s Office, ECE, and BME.