The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents held a special meeting Friday morning to fill a key academic vacancy.
The purpose was to select one person to perform three positions. Dr. Margaret Katherine Banks of Purdue University was named the sole finalist as director of the Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES). That appointment requires a 21 day waiting period.
Dr. Banks was also named vice chancellor for engineering for the A&M System and dean of the Dwight Look College of Engineering at the flagship campus.
A&M President Bowen Loftin pointed to her service at two land-grant institutions, appointments to key governmental agencies and service in the private sector as key factors in selecting Banks from a field of 60 nominees.
Dr. Loftin also noted Banks has a proven record in the development area, having been instrumental in raising $20 million during the past six years for facilities, scholarships, fellowships, professorships and related endeavors.
A&M’s College of Engineering is the university’s largest academic colleges, with more than 11,000 undergraduate and graduate students.
Banks succeeds G. Kemble Bennett, who stepped down August 31 after two terms of service. N.K Anand was appointed to the vice chancellor/dean positions September 1 on an interim basis and will serve until Banks formally assumes office in January 2012.