Dr. Stephen P. DeWeerth serves as Dean of the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science and as a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Lehigh University. Over his tenure, the College has seen significant growth across its research and edeucational mission, in particular through the creation and emergence of Lehigh's Interdisciplinary Research Institutes and an expansion of graduate studies across the engineering disciplines, and the development of key resources and programs that enhance the undergraduate experience. Other highlights have included the launching of Lehigh's Department of Bioengineering, focused fundraising to support doctoral students, undergraduate experiential learning, and enhancements to the COllege's community and culture.
Prior to his arrival at Lehigh in 2016, DeWeerth was a professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. He also served as professor in Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and as Associate Dean for Research and Innovation for its College of Engineering.
DeWeerth received his Ph.D. degree in Computational and Neural Systems from the California Institute of Technology in 1991, after which he took his first faculty appointment at Georgia Tech. He was also a founding faculty member in the Coulter BME Department, when it was created in 1999.
During his time at Georgia Tech, he served in numerous leadership positions including as the Founding Director of the Laboratory for Neuroengineering (an interdisciplinary research neighborhood and center), as the Director of Graduate Studies for the joint GT/Emory Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. program, and as the Principal Investigator on an NSF Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) grant and an NIH Bioengineering Research Partnership (BRP) grant. His research was focused on the development of real-time models of and interfaces to neural sensorimotor systems, particularly systems that control rhythmic movement (e.g. locomotion). He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).
From 2010 to 2013, Prof. DeWeerth served as the Founding Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, UAE. As BME Chair, he defined the strategic vision for BME research and education, recruited eight faculty members, and created and led the implementation of the BS-BME curriculum. He served as Chair of the Curriculum Innovation Committee, which implemented a major redesign of the B.S. curriculum for the entire College of Engineering. As academic lead for the development of the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, he worked with the key UAE stakeholders to develop the initial medical research strategy, co-authored the RFP to select a top-20 US medical school as the Collaborative Partner, led educational/research discussions with potential Partners, and helped to define the initial budget.
From 2013 to 2016, Prof. DeWeerth served as the Associate Dean for Research and Innovation in the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech. In this role, he prioritized the definition of a campus-wide program for great enhancing shared facilities to optimize expenditure of university research resources, to improve equipment utilization, to expand team science, and to facilitate strategic hiring. He co-chaired a task force that is defining procedures for creating and evaluating Interdisciplinary Research Institutes and Centers, and led programmatic development for faculty teams to create new strategic research areas. He co-directed the development of the first GT shared-services staffing model and its implementation in the new research-focused Engineered Biosciences Building.
