Bogucz stepping down as Syracuse CoE director, returning to classroom after sabbatical

Beginning Sept. 1, Laura Steinberg, executive director of the Syracuse University Infrastructure Institute, will serve as interim executive director of SyracuseCoE while a national search takes place, Syracuse said in a Thursday news release.

Steinberg is also a professor of civil and environmental engineering.

Syracuse will appoint a search committee once it announces the new dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

For more than 15 years, Bogucz has helped put Syracuse University “at the forefront of addressing global challenges for cleaner energy and healthier built environments,” the school said in its news release.

“I have had the privilege of helping Syracuse University rise to national prominence in the field of energy and environmental research and innovation,” Bogucz added in the news release. “Now, I look forward to returning to the classroom and collaborating with fellow faculty members to help prepare our students to be leaders in creating solutions for a low-carbon, resilient future.”

About Bogucz

Before his appointment as SyracuseCoE executive director in August 2003, Bogucz served as a faculty member and dean in Syracuse University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science. In those roles, Bogucz “was building successful collaborations among university, industry and government partners in education, research, technology transfer and economic-development projects,” per the news release.

He joined the Syracuse University faculty in 1985, the school said.

To date, SyracuseCoE has worked with more than 200 companies and institutions in collaborative projects to tackle regional and global challenges in clean energy, indoor environmental quality and water resources. Bogucz helped to “create an innovation ecosystem of research, demonstration and commercialization projects to bring energy and environmental innovations from lab to market,” Syracuse said.

“Ed is one of those stellar thinkers, innovators and inspiring leaders who helped elevate the entire research enterprise,” John Liu, the University’s vice president for research, said in the school’s news release. “He helped to bring significant federal and state funding to catalyze research, development and demonstration projects to accelerate innovations for cleaner energy, healthier buildings and more resilient communities. And he has attracted international attention to the University through his leadership in this field, including hosting the Healthy Buildings conference in 2009 and opening the LEED-platinum living-laboratory headquarters in downtown Syracuse, a thriving hub for industry-university collaborations. Last year, SyracuseCoE hosted the International Building Physics Conference, attracting hundreds of high-caliber researchers from all over the world to Syracuse.”

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com