Elise Morgan has helped facilitate greater collaboration across the College of Engineering, and she will now lead the college as its new dean. Photo by Doug Levy

University News

Elise Morgan Named BU College of Engineering Dean

Longtime faculty member who served as dean ad interim for two years assumes permanent leadership role

The new dean of the Boston University College of Engineering is a familiar face: Elise Morgan, interim dean since July 2023 and a long-standing and deeply respected member of the ENG faculty, will take over the role permanently starting August 1, BU officials announced Thursday. 

Her appointment comes after a national search process that included “several strong candidates for the role,” Gloria Waters, University provost and chief academic officer, said in a letter to the BU community. Waters described Morgan’s “exemplary leadership” as a key factor in the decision.

Morgan’s résumé as a leader is robust. Formerly an associate dean of ENG, she helped facilitate greater collaboration throughout the college, strengthening its research excellence in the process. She created new junior faculty mentoring programs, designed and oversaw a new faculty search process that focuses on convergent research themes, helped recruit a host of cross-disciplinary graduate students, and designed and oversaw the college’s holistic grants administration and finance system. 

“Professor Morgan has brought a steady, collaborative management style focused on accelerating ambitious new scholarship, further strengthening the college’s undergraduate offerings, and enhancing a culture of inclusion for students, faculty, and staff across all departments, in her role as interim dean for the last two years,” Waters wrote in the letter. “In doing so, she has established her own vision for the college as a laboratory for innovation and a training ground for premier engineering talent.”

Waters described Morgan as “a bridge-builder,” both within the college’s various engineering disciplines and between the college and the University as a whole. 

“Professor Morgan was selected following a competitive national search,” BU President Melissa Gilliam added. “Clearly, she is the right leader to guide the College of Engineering at this time. She is an excellent scientist, an innovative leader, and brings a deep commitment to education and research. Elise will continue to advance the eminence of the College of Engineering and Boston University. I am excited about the college’s next chapter under her leadership.”

Morgan says she is honored to have the opportunity to lead.

“Serving as the interim dean for the past two years has been an immense privilege; being selected as dean now is an even greater honor,” says Morgan, the Maysarah K. Sukkar Professor of Engineering Design and Innovation. “I am humbled and excited to lead the college in its next chapter. 

“I have been inspired every day by the energy, achievements, and creativity of our students and all facets of our community—faculty, staff, alumni, and friends,” she says. “I have been heartened by the care and support that so many in our college have given to others in the face of challenges and turmoil around the world. And I believe strongly in BU Engineering’s commitment to the societal impact of our research and education. This combination of exceptional innovation, compassion, and dedication to the greater good is rare, and it is the foundation for our future.”

Morgan joined the BU faculty in 2003. In the more than two decades since, she’s accumulated a number of awards and honors. Among them: she is an elected fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and in 2015 was named to the 100 Inspiring Women in STEM list by INSIGHT into Diversity magazine. She has served as associate editor of the Journal of Biomechanics and as a member of the board of directors of the Orthopaedic Research Society and was formerly the chair of a National Institutes of Health study section. 

Morgan’s primary professorial appointment is in the department of mechanical engineering, with additional affiliations in the Division of Materials Science & Engineering, the department of biomedical engineering, and the Chobanian & Avedisian department of orthopaedic surgery. She founded the BU Center for Multiscale & Translational Mechanobiology. 

An impactful researcher, Morgan has over 100 peer-reviewed publications and more than 14,000 citations. Her work focuses on the interplay between the mechanical behavior, structure, and biological function of tissues. A self-described “bone geek,” she uses methods from engineering mechanics, materials science, and cell and molecular biology to investigate how mechanical signals contribute to the development, adaptation, degeneration, and regeneration of bone and cartilage.

“Engineering is a field with unrivaled power to transform lives at scale, and our college is uniquely positioned to expand this power even further,” Morgan says. “Our faculty and students are advancing biomanufacturing, redefining human-machine partnerships with AI, building new tissues, revolutionizing imaging, attacking the world’s biggest energy challenges, and more. Together we are shaping a future where engineering discoveries enable boundless human progress for every individual and every community.”