Michigan Engineers take the reins at colleges and universities
Five alumni have recently stepped into leadership roles.
As fall semesters ramp up across the country, five Michigan Engineering alumni are on the job as academic presidents and chancellors. Domenico Grasso stepped into the role of interim president at U-M in May 2025, while Steven W. McLaughlin, William H. Sanders and Jack Hu joined The Cooper Union, Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of California Riverside in July 2025. A fifth Michigan engineer, Harriett B. Nembhard, has served as president of Harvey Mudd College since March 2024.
We invite you to meet the five presidents.
Domenico Grasso is an environmental engineer who became U-M president after serving as chancellor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. His research focuses on molecular-scale processes that govern the ultimate fate of contaminants in the environment and development of new techniques to reduce risks to human health and natural resources.
Grasso is a diplomate (a board-certified member) of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and has been a registered professional engineer in Connecticut and Texas. He was the chair of the National Academies Committee on Grand Challenges in Environmental Science and Engineering.
He holds engineering degrees from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (BS, civil engineering), Purdue University (MS, civil engineering) and U-M (PhD, environmental engineering).
Steven W. McLaughlin is a computer science engineer who joined The Cooper Union as president after nearly 30 years at the Georgia Institute of Technology, most recently as the university’s chief academic officer. As an engineer, his research focuses on communications and information theory.
McLaughlin is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and a past president of the IEEE Information Theory Society. He is a recipient of the Chevalier de l`Ordre National du Mérite (Knight of the French National Order of Merit), the second highest civilian award given by the president of the Republic of France, for his leadership with the campus of Georgia Tech-Europe in Metz, France.
He holds degrees from Northwestern University (BS, electrical engineering), Princeton University (MSE, electrical engineering) and U-M (PhD, electrical engineering).
William H. (Bill) Sanders became president of Rochester Institute of Technology after serving at Carnegie Mellon University, where he was the dean of the College of Engineering. Prior to that role, he spent 25 years as a professor at the University of Illinois. His research interests include secure, dependable, and resilient computing systems with a focus on critical infrastructures.
Sanders is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of IEEE. the Association for Computing Machinery and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
He holds a BSE in computer engineering, an MSE in computer, information and control engineering and a PhD in computer science and engineering from U-M.
Jack Hu is a mechanical engineer who joined the University of California, Riverside as chancellor after serving as vice president and provost at the University of Georgia. Prior to that, he spent more than 25 years on U-M’s faculty as a professor and, most recently, the University’s vice president for research. He also led the development of U-M’s Mcity, one of the world’s leading test facilities for connected and autonomous vehicles.
Hu’s research interests focus on manufacturing science; he has advanced the fields of assembly systems, materials joining and quality control. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, the National Academy of Inventors and the International Society for Production Engineering.
Hu holds a BS in mechanical engineering from Tianjin University and MSE and PhD degrees in mechanical engineering from U-M.
Harriett B. Nembhard is an industrial engineer who stepped into the presidency of Harvey Mudd College after serving as dean of engineering at the University of Iowa. Her research focuses on improving complex systems across manufacturing and healthcare.
Her research has led to numerous advances including simulation models for assessing emergency department patient flow, a patented manufacturing process for medical devices and a machine-learning sensor-based system to conduct early screening of Parkinson’s disease. She is a fellow of the American Society for Quality, the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
Nembhard holds degrees from Claremont McKenna College (BA, management engineering), Arizona State University (BS, industrial engineering), and U-M (MSE and PhD, industrial operations and engineering).