With a growing number of Indian Americans occupying important positions in the American academic world as professors, lead researchers and academic administrators, it was no surprise when Arun Majumdar, Indian-American material scientist, engineer and professor, was named the inaugural dean of Stanford University's new school that focuses on climate change and sustainability. 

Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, the university's first new school in 70 years, which aims to accelerate solutions to the global climate crisis, will be launched on September 1, according to Stanford news. Arun Majumdar, currently the Jay Precourt Provostial Chair Professor, a faculty member of the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering, and Senior Fellow and former director of the Precourt Institute for Energy, will assume his new position on June 15.

Originally from Kolkata, Majumdar received his bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in 1985 and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989. He was nominated for the position of Under Secretary of Energy in the United States between November 30, 2011 and May 15, 2012, but then the nomination was retracted.

After leaving Washington DC, Majumdar was the vice president for energy at Google, where he assembled a team to create technologies and businesses at the intersection of data, computing, and electricity grid.

Majumdar joined Stanford in 2014. He was the founding director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) and currently serves as the chair of the advisory board to the US Secretary of Energy.

"I am deeply honoured and humbled by the opportunity to serve as the inaugural dean," Majumdar said in the release.

"Building on the extraordinary leadership of transitions deans, Kam Moler and Steve Graham, we will not only harness the intellectual horsepower of our students, faculty, and staff across our campus, but we will also partner with external organisations around the world to co-develop innovative solutions and identify new insights through research and education," he said.

"As is often said, we do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. We must collectively figure out how to create a future where humans and nature thrive together," Majumdar said.

(SAM)