U.Va. names new dean for School of Engineering and Applied Science

Craig H. Benson has been named dean of the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science. The appointment is effective July 1.

A member of the National Academy of Engineering, Benson chairs the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Geological Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, He also co-directs the Office of Sustainability and directs Sustainability Research and Education.

Benson is also an affiliate professor at the university’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.

Benson will succeed James H. Aylor at U.Va., who will rejoin the faculty after a one-year sabbatical.

The School of Engineering and Applied Science is the second-largest of U.Va.’s 11 schools, with 2,688 undergraduate and 585 graduate students and 141 faculty members. The school offers 10 undergraduate degrees and 10 graduate degrees, and earned $49.2 million in sponsored research awards last year.

Benson received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Lehigh University and a master’s in civil engineering/geotechnical engineering and a doctorate in civil engineering/geoenvironmental engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.