Bellamkonda Named Provost at Emory; Glass to Serve as Interim Dean

Ravi Bellamkonda, the Vinik Dean of the Pratt School of Engineering since 2016, will depart Duke in June 2021 to serve as the provost and executive vice president of Emory University in Atlanta. 

“Ravi has been an energetic dean who has had a tremendous positive impact on the school,” said Provost Sally Kornbluth.  “His foresight and energy in driving the creation of the design curriculum, the construction of the new engineering building, the recruitment and retention of excellent faculty and students, the enhancement of diversity, inclusion and equity efforts throughout the school, and increased engagement of Pratt alumni and parents will have a lasting impact. He has also been a wonderful colleague and university citizen.”

Prior to joining Duke, Bellamkonda was a member of the faculties of Emory and Georgia Tech beginning in 2003, serving as chair of their joint Department of Biomedical Engineering from 2013 to 2016.

Under his leadership at Duke, the Pratt School has created a foundational new First-Year Design course focused on authentic, team-based problem-solving, along with new programs in engineering entrepreneurship and ethics, purpose and meaning. New research awards increased by 30 percent, to a record $97 million in 2019-2020. Bellamkonda also oversaw the design and construction of the new Wilkinson Building, a $115 million, 150,000-square-foot facility for engineering education, research and entrepreneurship, which opened for classes earlier this year.  

“It has been a joy and an honor to work alongside this incredibly talented community as dean for the past five years,” Bellamkonda said. “Duke Engineering has a shared culture of success, of rising higher, of ‘outrageous ambition’ that will persist on the foundation we’ve collectively laid. Duke Engineering owes its present strength to everyone who has contributed to that vision over the years, and its future is particularly bright thanks to our incredible faculty, staff, students, parents and alumni.” 

Kornbluth has appointed Jeff Glass, professor of electrical & computer engineering and Pratt’s senior associate dean for education and learning innovation, to serve as interim dean effective July 1. A national search for a new dean will begin within the next few weeks, and a search committee will soon be named.

“Jeff is extremely well-versed in the workings of the school, having been an outstanding professor and administrator at Pratt since 2003,” added Kornbluth.  “I know that he will provide strong and steady leadership as we search for Ravi’s successor.”

Glass is also faculty director of Duke’s Master of Engineering Management Program.  He came to Duke from Case Western Reserve University, where he was a professor and co-director of the Institute for the Integration of Management and Engineering. Glass is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University, where he also received a master’s degree, and earned a PhD in materials science and engineering from the University of Virginia and an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke.