All members of The University of Alabama campus community are invited to attend public presentations by each of the finalists for the position of executive vice president and provost.
The second candidate, Dr. Kevin Whitaker, will give a public presentation Monday, Nov. 28.
The third candidate, Dr. Latha Ramchand, will give a public presentation Wednesday, Nov. 30.
The fourth candidate, Dr. Chaden Djalali, will give a public presentation Thursday, Dec. 1.
Each presentation will be from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. in 1012 North Lawn Hall. A one-hour reception will follow each presentation.
Whitaker is interim provost at The University of Alabama and associate professor of aerospace engineering and mechanics. He previously served as associate provost for academic affairs and associate dean for academic programs in UA’s College of Engineering. He has been awarded numerous externally funded research grants and has numerous reviewed publications. His research interests include fluid dynamics, neural networks and artificial intelligence and engineering education. Whitaker joined UA as an assistant professor of aerospace engineering and was later promoted to associate professor. Whitaker received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from General Motors Institute and his master’s and doctoral degrees from Texas A&M University.
Ramchand is the dean at the C. T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston and a professor of finance. She has previously served as associate dean, programs and administration, and associate dean of graduate and professional programs. Her research interests include international and corporate finance. Her publications have appeared in prestigious finance journals, and she has presented her work at various national and international conferences. She received her doctorate in finance at Northwestern University where she attended the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. She is a gold medalist in economics from Bombay University where she graduated with a master’s degree in economics.
Djalali is the dean of the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and a professor in the department of physics and astronomy. He previously served on the faculty at the University of South Carolina, including serving as chair of the department of physics and astronomy. His research interests include intermediate energy nuclear physics and hadronic physics. At South Carolina, he was involved with university-wide governance and contributed to undergraduate and graduate curriculum development. He earned his bachelor of science and master of science degrees in physics from the University of Paris XI and doctorate in physics from Institut de Physique Nucléaire (IPN-Orsay) in Paris.
For those who cannot attend the open forums, video of the candidates’ presentations will be posted a day or two after each presentation on the search website.
More information about the candidates, along with their vitae and evaluation forms to be completed following each presentation, is available at https://www.ua.edu/provostsearch/.