News/Research
17 Nov, 2016

Ken Goldberg Named Chair of IEOR

Effective January 1, 2017, Professor Ken Goldberg will serve as Chair of the Department of Industrial Engineering & Operations Research (IEOR). Ken is a professor of IEOR, with secondary appointments in EECS, Art Practice, the School of Information and Radiation Oncology at UCSF’s Medical School. Ken is Director of CITRIS’s People and Robots Initiative and UC Berkeley’s AUTOLAB, where he and his students pursue research in geometric algorithms and machine learning for robotics and automation in surgery, manufacturing and service applications.

Ken has over 200 peer-reviewed publications and was awarded eight U.S. patents. He co-founded and served as editor-in-chief of the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering. His artwork has appeared in 70 exhibits including the Whitney Biennial, and he developed the first provably complete algorithm for part feeding and the first robot on the Internet. Ken was awarded the NSF PECASE (Presidential Faculty Fellowship) from President Bill Clinton in 1995, elected IEEE Fellow in 2005 and selected by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society for the George Saridis Leadership Award in 2016.

Ken will succeed Professor Phil Kaminsky, who during his five and a half year tenure as the department's leader helped IEOR make significant improvements by helping to build the master of engineering program, successfully leading a large renovation effort for Etcheverry Hall, incorporating the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology into the department, and much, much more. Besides continuing his duties as an IEOR Professor, Phil will also be taking on a new role as the new Associate Dean for Academic Planning and Development.

Congratulations, Ken!