NEWARK — Dr. Pamela Norris, the former vice provost of research at George Washington University and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, has been named the next dean of the
University of Delaware College of Engineering.
Norris succeeds Levi Thompson, who held the post for six years but stepped down in July 2024 for a year-long administrative leave after which he will return to UD faculty. Norris was selected following a nationwide search and was introduced in November.
She will start her tenure as dean in March.
“A distinguished researcher and a proven administrative leader, Dr. Norris has the skills, experience and initiative to advance our College of Engineering through its next phase of growth in both research and education,” UD President Dennis Assanis said in a prepared statement. “Internationally recognized as an expert in nanoscale heat transfer, she is also highly regarded for her commitment to increasing representation and retention of women students and faculty in STEM disciplines. I look forward to working closely with her as we chart the college’s future.”
Norris told the Delaware Business Times that she hopes her leadership will represent two core pillars of her career: research and mentorship.
During her previous time at the University of Virginia where she spent close to three decades, she served as a principal investigator on more than 45 projects that totaled in $26 million in federal funding from the United States Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, Industry, Foundations and more.
“That's an incredibly important part of my career because it’s the story of how I got to this point,” Norris said. “I grew up when all my family worked at the shipyards in Portsmouth, alongside all the government civil service workers. Some of my favorite scientific breakthroughs, like the hold pads for next generation aircraft carriers, were done in my own backyard.”
Norris herself got interested in engineering when she was in fourth grade and went on a class trip to a NASA learning lab. While it was unusual for a woman to go into engineering, she wasn’t deterred and went on to study at Old Dominion University and later earned a master’s degree and doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
One of the most impactful experiences Norris had was completing her postdoctoral research under
Dr. Chang-Lin Tien, the chancellor at University of California Berkeley and celebrated thermal science researcher who worked with NASA on heat-shielding tiles for space shuttles.
“He was always advising on how to work on the extreme of things, whether it's time scale or nanoscale. But he also took a very personalized approach for every single person he interacted with,” she said. “When he took me to conferences, he walked me around and introduced me and immediately established my credibility. His style really changed the way I handle my own mentees.”
In her own right, Norris holds patents for innovative thermal management techniques for jet-blast detectors and landing pads and for applications of aerogels, a synthetic open-celled foam used in many applications. Norris’ particular patents in aerogels include biological warfare detection and lab-on-a-chip.
She has also published more than 100 journal articles and founded two research laboratories at UVA, the Nanoscale Energy Transfer Lab and the Aerogel Research Lab.
At a time when the United States is still working to make up ground in science and mathematical skills in our schools, Norris is also mindful of her role in leading one of the region’s top engineering schools. The UD College of Engineering is ranked 38th in the nation for engineering.
“I do think we need to be careful of advertising what engineers do - because to be an effective engineer, you must be brilliant at those studies, but you also have to be a great problem solver and communicator. To attract people, we must equip them with all the tools well,” she said. “The good news is that the next generation really has the drive to make the world a better place. That’s a major opportunity, and we need to make sure we supplement them to ensure they can contribute to the STEM workforce.”