Professor Susan Daniel has been named the next director of the Robert Frederick Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, effective July 1, 2021. The appointment was announced on April 29, 2021, by Dean Lynden Archer with the following message to the Cornell Engineering community:
Dear Colleagues,
I am very pleased to announce that Professor Susan Daniel has been selected to serve as the next Director of the Robert Frederick Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE). Susan’s initial four-year appointment will begin on July 1, 2021.
Susan came to Cornell in 2007 as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to the rank of Professor in 2020. She is a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a recipient of Cornell’s Schwartz Life Science Award, and a recipient of Cornell Engineering’s Research Excellence Award. Susan is known internationally for her work on interfacial dynamics and biophysics of bilayer membranes. Her group pioneered the use of cell-free bio-membrane platforms for creating cellular processes on a chip, with realistic molecular and biological complexity. The work finds application in studies of biophysical properties of cell membranes in a broad range of cell types — mammalian, plants, bacteria, and viruses. Most recently, her work has been used to elucidate infection mechanisms and associated therapeutic response of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19.
As an award-winning faculty advisor for the CBE Graduate Women’s Group, Director of Graduate Studies in the Smith School, and founder of the school’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Program, Susan has demonstrated creativity and impact in leadership roles of increasing complexity. She impressed the search committees at both the department and college levels with a compelling vision and strategic plan for the Smith School. I believe that she is the right person to lead CBE at the present time.
Please join me in congratulating Susan Daniel on her new role in CBE and in the College.
I would also like to extend my personal thanks to our colleague and outgoing Director, Professor Abe Stroock, for his able leadership of the Smith School over the last five years, and particularly during the last difficult year. Abe’s achievements as director are numerous and important, and he has established a strong foundation for Susan to build upon.
Best regards,
Lynden A. Archer
Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering
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