Winston Oluwole Soboyejo has been appointed provost and senior vice president at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. Worcester Polytechnic enrolls more than 4,600 undergraduate students and 2,200 graduate students, according to the latest data supplied to the U.S. Department of Education. African Americans make up just 3 percent of the undergraduate study body.
“At this point in time, advances in science and technology are developing at a rapid pace, and the world desperately needs more scientists and engineers who know and care enough to create solutions to great problems in ways that are informed by global context,” said Dr. Soboyejo. “Through purpose-driven research and project-based learning, WPI will make that possible. This is an amazing time to be here, and I am truly honored to have been named provost.”
Dr. Soboyejo has been serving as interim provost since September 2018 and as the Bernard M. Gordon Dean of Engineering at the university. He joined the faculty in 2016. Earlier, he was a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University in New Jersey. From 1992 to 1999, he taught at Ohio State University. Dr. Soboyejo’s research focuses on biomaterials and the use of nanoparticles for the detection and treatment of disease, the mechanical properties of materials, and the use of materials science to promote global development.
Born in Palo Alto, Calif., Soboyejo grew up in western Nigeria, where his father was a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Lagos. He earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering at Kings College in London and a Ph.D. in materials science and metallurgy from the University of Cambridge in England.
