Message from Dean Ottino
Dear friend of McCormick:
As I continue my tenure as dean of McCormick, I do so with a strong sense of the enormous importance of the mission of McCormick. The world as we know it would be unrecognizable without engineering. Engineering creates goods, knowledge, services, and infrastructures that benefit humankind; it is no exaggeration to argue that engineering is one of the main drivers in our world today.
As an internationally recognized center for research and teaching, a school like ours can have an important role in shaping the future of our profession. It is a great challenge to be at the center of engineering at the present time — many rapid changes are occurring that require a careful balance of the many parts of the profession. For example, in engineering research the more established fields must have seamless connections to the newer fields — blurring the distinction between science and engineering and supporting truly interdisciplinary research.
McCormick is part of Northwestern University, a world-class research university with outstanding schools and programs. At McCormick we have attained a unique balance of excellence in teaching with innovation in research. The foundation of our school's strength is our fine and extremely committed faculty — ours is a school where teaching is taken very seriously — and we are supported by a remarkably talented and dedicated staff. We support top-ranked professional programs, place a strong emphasis on design in our curriculum, and support a co-op program that, historically, has been considered a benchmark for other institutions.
I encourage you to learn more about McCormick by exploring this Web site or visiting us in Evanston. Share in our excitement as we pursue engineering excellence at all levels.
Best regards,
Julio M. Ottino,
Dean of the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
