| Feniosky Peña-Mora | |
|---|---|
| 14th Dean of Columbia University Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science | |
| Term | 2009 – present |
| Predecessor | Zvi Galil |
| Associate Provost of University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign | |
| Term | 2008 – 2009 |
| Born | 1966 Dominican Republic |
| Alma mater | Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña (B.S.) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.S.) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sc.D.) |
| Residence | New York City |
| Profession | Educator, Engineer, Management |
| Website | [1] |
Feniosky Peña-Mora is a Dominican born engineer, educator, and the 14th Dean of Columbia University's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. Formerly the Associate Provost of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, he has an international reputation for his teaching, research, and leadership in managing engineering programs at world-renowned universities.[1] He is also Columbia University's Morris A. and Alma Schapiro Professor of Engineering in the Departments of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics and Computer Science. Peña-Mora's appointment to one of the top posts in the Ivy League school has garnered much sensationalism in his home country Dominican Republic, and he has been headlined as the country's prodigy son.[2]
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In 1988, Feniosky Peña-Mora arrived in Washington Heights from the Dominican Republic. He was 21 with a degree in engineering from Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña in Santo Domingo. Yet without a background in English, Peña-Mora took English classes at Columbia University's Teachers College and at a YMCA program in Greenwich Village. He ended his days at Bronx Community College.
Even at an age of 12, Feniosky displayed an interest in engineering, building small bridges from popsicle sticks. However, his childhood in the Dominican Republic was relatively unstable. After his mother, Mirtha Lopez who was divorced when Feniosky turned 8, moved to New York in search of employment, Peña-Mora moved around between aunts and their fathers. Later, when he failed to join the United States military after high school, Peña-Mora enrolled in the Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez in Santo Domingo.
Before arriving in MIT, Peña-Mora met Minosca Alcantara, a fellow engineering student at the university. They started to date, and when Peña-Mora was admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s graduate school, she followed him to the United States. Peña-Mora, meanwhile, focused on earning both Master of Science and Doctor of Science degrees in civil engineering from MIT. During this time, Peña-Mora became fascinated by the complexities of large-scale construction projects and the role of engineers in responding to major disasters, topics of which he later researched and taught. Peña-Mora impressed the faculty at MIT and was offered a teaching position upon finishing his doctorate. Subsequently, Peña-Mora took a year to develop real-world experience, working on the construction of the Central Artery in Boston, commonly known as the Big Dig. In 2003, the Peña-Mora, then an associate professor at MIT, and his wife left Massachusetts for the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he accepted an endowed faculty position in its civil and environmental engineering department. In 2008, he became an associate provost at the university. As Associate Provost at the University of Illinois, Peña-Mora was actively involved with Interdisciplinary, Diversity and Entrepreneurial Initiatives, interests that he has carried over into his post as Dean of Columbia Engineering. While still Associate Provost, he served as the campus lead for the Consortium on Fostering Interdisciplinary Inquiry that consisted of US research institutions which have exhibited leadership and innovation in supporting interdisciplinary activities in higher education. Consequently, Pena Mora tackled the campus’ contributions to the consortium self-study and chaired the Campus Executive Committee. A year later in June, 2009, Peña-Mora accepted his new position as Columbia's Dean of Engineering and Applied Science in June, 2009.
Peña-Mora’s research encompasses information technology support for collaboration in preparedness, response, and recovery during disasters such as the 9-11 terrorist attack and Hurricane Katrina. He also studies change management, conflict resolution, and processes integration for large-scale engineering systems. Peña-Mora made ground-breaking impact in the field of construction engineering and management, contributing to advances in our understanding of change and conflicts and collaboration in large infrastructure processes.[3] Peña-Mora’s development of the Interaction Space Theory for collaboration has sharpened performance among global construction management teams. In change management, he has identified the key components that influence the effectiveness of fast-tracking strategies construction projects and their governing dynamics. His findings on collaboration, change management, and conflict resolution have been adopted and implemented in several important large-scale infrastructure projects, such as for Boston's Central Artery, Route 3 North project in Massachusetts, Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM) Project, and the Puerto Rico's Tren Urbano project.
Peña-Mora is the author of more than 100 publications. His research has been groundbreaking in the field of construction engineering and management. He is a professional engineer registered in the Dominican Republic and a key figure in a variety of international projects. He has founded high-tech startups and consulting companies, working with both the construction industry and governments of various foreign nations including Argentina, Colombia and Japan. He is the holder of the 1999 National Science Foundation CAREER Award[4] and the White House Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. In 2007, Peña-Mora received the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize[5] of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Recently in 2008, he was recognized with the ASCE Computing in Civil Engineering Award[6] for outstanding achievement in the use of computers for purposes of civil engineering.
From 1995 to 2009, Peña-Mora has raised nearly $7 million dollars in research funding from both private and public organizations, in addition to over $1.5 million dollars in investments for high tech start-up.
Affectionately called “Feni” by Columbia University's President Lee C. Bollinger, Feniosky Pena-Mora was appointed to the position of dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in April after a two-year search. Since the announcement of his appointment, Spanish periodicals have hailed him as a hero.[7] Dean Peña-Mora is keen on emphasizing interdisciplinary research and teaching in the applied sciences, the role of engineers as leaders, and the importance of the Columbia's famed Core curriculum in ensuring the synergy of liberal arts and engineering studies. Dean Peña-Mora leads Columbia's engineering school, whose mission seeks to educate socially-responsible engineering and applied science leaders, whose works, according to the School's core mission, will result in the betterment of the human condition, locally, nationally, and globally. Peña-Mora's efforts in furtherance of this mission constitutes focusing on the frontier of an area that he has named “CyberBioPhysicalTM Systems,”[8] where the biological, physical, and digital worlds integrate and fuse. These innovative pursuits will solve current challenges in health, sustainability, energy, and water.
Since 2009, Dean Peña-Mora has also instituted a “Rising Superstars” strategy to attract the best and brightest new faculty to Columbia Engineering and to reward current faculty whose work places them at the top of their own fields. He has raised $10 million thus far to fund the massive initiative.
Administratively, he has created committees that would promote better communication among and between faculty chairs and senior staff. On the academic side, he has started to standardize the promotion and tenure processes of the School, while seeking competent personnel to carry forward new key initiatives in media relations, corporate relations, and development.
Recently, however, Peña-Mora has come under severe criticisms from Columbia faculty, for intolerance of the opinions of others and handling academic hiring based on prospect of profit - whether the potential hire could bring in funding for the school - rather than true intellectual promise. [9]
Dean Peña-Mora is the holder of some of the most prestigious awards in the engineering and research profession.
Peña-Mora has authored or co-authored over one-hundred publications in refereed journals, conference proceedings, book chapters, and textbooks. His publication, “Design Rationale for Computer Supported Conflict Mitigation,”[14] received the 1995 award for best paper published in the American Society Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering. He is also the author of Introduction to construction dispute resolution (2002).[15]