Karr Named Dean of UA College of Engineering

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Dr. Charles L. Karr has been named dean of The University of Alabama College of Engineering.

Dr. Judy Bonner, UA provost and vice president for academic affairs, announced the appointment, which is effective July 1. Karr replaces Dr. Keith McDowell, vice president for research at UA, who also served for the past year as interim dean.

“We are confident that Dr. Karr is the right person at this critical time to provide leadership for The University of Alabama College of Engineering,” Bonner said. “We look forward to much success in the future under his guidance.”

“I am honored to be named as dean of the College of Engineering,” said Karr. “It will be exciting to work with the faculty and the University administration as we solidify the position of the College as the capstone of engineering in Alabama and a leader in the nation.”

Most recently, Karr served as the College’s associate dean for research and graduate studies, where he was responsible for working with research funding agencies, assisting engineering faculty with research proposals and budgets, and coordinating the engineering graduate programs.

Karr is a three-time graduate of UA, completing his Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering in 1984 and his master’s and doctorate in engineering mechanics in 1987 and 1989, respectively. After receiving his doctorate, he spent seven years working as a research engineer with the U.S. Bureau of Mines, Tuscaloosa Research Center.

While working at the Bureau, Karr maintained a relationship with UA by serving as a part-time instructor in both the engineering mechanics and the aerospace engineering departments. He joined the faculty full time in 1995 as an assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor and then professor.

Considered a leading expert in the area of intelligent systems, Karr is the author of three books and 20 book chapters, and he has published 44 refereed journal articles and more than 90 conference papers. He has become widely known for his pioneering work in combining genetic algorithms and fuzzy logic, and he has successfully applied these techniques in the aerospace, mineral processing, manufacturing and steel industries. In addition, he holds four international patents in the area of intelligent systems for locating the source of radio signals.

Karr has received several awards and has been involved with numerous professional societies. He was the Engineer of the Year for the U.S. Bureau of Mines, Tuscaloosa Research Center in 1990, and the Young Scientist of the Year for the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration’s Industrial Minerals Division in 1991. He received the Outstanding Young Engineer Award from the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration’s Mineral and Metallurgical Processing Division in 1993, and he was named the Bureau of Mines Technology Transfer Person of the Year in 1993. In 2005, he received the T. Morris Hackney Faculty Leadership Award from the College.

Since beginning his career at the University, Karr has consistently been recognized for his teaching abilities, winning the Charles Henry Ratcliff Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Engineering Mechanics Teaching five times, and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (UA chapter) Outstanding Faculty Member Award twice. He has been actively involved with the Society of Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers, the American Filtration Society, and the North American Fuzzy Information Processing Society.

In 1837, UA became the first university in the state to offer engineering classes and was one of the first five in the nation to do so. Today, the College of Engineering, with about 1,900 students and more than 90 faculty, is one of the three oldest continuously operating engineering programs in the country and has been fully accredited since accreditation standards were implemented in the 1930s.