WORCESTER – The trustees at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) announced the institution’s 17th president, on Tuesday, “Grace” Jinliu Wang, PhD, after a nationwide search.
Formed WPI president Laurie Leshin left the position in May after eight years. She is now director at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Winston “Wole” Soboyejo, WPI provost and senior vice president will continue to serve as interim president until Wang begins on April 3.
Wang was most recently executive vice president for research, innovation, and knowledge at Ohio State University (OSU) where she led the effort to grow the university’s research and innovation ecosystem, ultimately creating the Enterprise for Research, Innovation, and Knowledge. She also led forming the STEAMM Rising (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics and Medicine) partnership with the Columbus City Schools by providing training to K-12 teachers with the goal of increasing STEAMM awareness at scale.
Wang said, “I look forward to listening and learning from the great minds who make WPI what it is and whose voices will play an essential role in defining our way forward. To lead this amazing university, one I have always held in high esteem, is an honor and privilege.”
In 2020 and 2021, the U.S. Department of Energy appointed Wang to serve on the National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee. She is currently a council member of the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable (GUIRR) at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She is a member of the Board of Governors for the New York Academy of Sciences, and the incoming Board Chair for the University-Industry Demonstration Partnership (UIDP).
Prior to Ohio State, Wang was senior vice chancellor for research and economic development of the State University of New York (SUNY) System and served as interim president of SUNY Polytechnic Institute. She joined SUNY as a professor in the Department of Materials Design and Innovation at the flagship University at Buffalo and as vice chancellor for research and economic development of the SUNY system in 2017.
Wang joined the national Science Foundation in 2009 as a program director in the Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships and became division director in 2012. She later served as deputy assistant director for engineering there. She began her career at BM/Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, focusing on research and development of thin-film magnetic recording media and carbon overcoat for data storage.
Wang earned a BS and MS in Polymer Materials from Beijing University of Chemical Technology, and a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University.
