Michigan: Indian American Prof. Debasish Dutta has been appointed as the next chancellor of the University of Michigan at Flint and will take charge from Aug. 1. Dutta’s five-year appointment was approved by the Board of Regents. He succeeds Susan E. Borrego, who will step down from her position at the end of her tenure in July. As UM-Flint chancellor, Dutta will serve as the chief executive officer of the Flint campus and also an executive officer of University of Michigan.
“I am thrilled to return to the University of Michigan to lead UM-Flint,” Dutta said in a statement. Dutta is a distinguished professor of engineering and the former chancellor at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. He began his career at U-M as an assistant professor of mechanical engineering in 1989 and moved through the ranks to professor in 2000. While at Michigan, he was the director of the College of Engineering’s Program in Manufacturing and the founding director of its Interdisciplinary Professional Programs.
“Dr Dutta brings a lifetime of academic leadership experience and accomplishment to his new position at the University of Michigan-Flint,” president Mark Schlissel said. Dutta holds a doctorate in industrial engineering from Purdue, a master’s degree in engineering management from the University of Evansville, and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Jadavpur University in Kolkata. He is an elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has served as a scholar-in-residence at the National Academy of Engineering.
