An educational consultant to the United Arab Emirates. An expert probing the construction of molecules called "chiral." A California professional academic.
One of the above will be chosen to lead as provost of the Polytechnic campus, as student growth is expected to nearly triple within the next 10 years.
Over the course of several weeks, ASU is vetting a small group of applicants for the new provost and vice provost positions at Polytechnic.
The choice is left to the search committee, comprised of ASU faculty and staff alongside various community representatives.
As of November, the committee narrowed the search to three finalists.
"The candidates were selected for their knowledge of the academic disciplines on the Polytechnic campus and their ability to articulate and implement a vision of the future for the campus, consistent with aspirations of the University and the community," said Betty Capaldi, chair of the search committee, in a Polytechnic press release.
The committee is looking to replace the previous provost, Gerald Jakubowski, by administering a series of interviews and holding open forums with candidates.
Jakubowski left to fill a position at another technology school in Indiana.
"The search committee looked for a person who has the ability to leverage and further develop the Polytechnic model envisioned by the faculty, staff and President Crow," said Roc Arnett, president and CEO of the East Valley Partnership and a member of the search committee, in a Polytechnic press release.
In a Nov. 15 press release, ASU announced the three final candidates for the provost and vice provost positions and that the vetting process was slated for various times throughout the month of November.
Among the candidates are David A. Wagie, a former brigadier general in the Air Force. He also worked for the minister of education for the United Arab Emirates reviewing various colleges and universities.
Wagie served in several faculty positions and has several degrees in science, including a doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics from Purdue University.
According to Wagie's Air Force biography, "He commanded 800-member dean of the faculty mission element."
In addition, he supervised an annual design and lessons of more than "500 undergraduate courses for 4,000 cadets in 31 academic disciplines."
According to a document from the Department of Defense's Web site, he served as dean of the faculty of the U.S. Air Force Academy, during which several of the branch's leaders - Wagie among them - were reprimanded for their lackluster response to allegations of sexual harassment.
Capaldi said he was exonerated and the search committee was aware of his exoneration.
James P. Riehl is another finalist and a former dean of the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota, Duluth.
Riehl is also an expert at using spectroscopy to probe the structure of molecules that have been given the name "chiral."
According to his biography on Intelligent Transportation Institute's Web site, these are molecules that may occur in non-superimposable mirror-image forms.
He has been the author of about 90 research publications.
The third and last finalist, Michael K. Mahoney, served as the dean of the College of Engineering at California State University, Long Beach. He's been involved in various faculty positions for the past 25 years.
He has co-authored many technical books and articles on the Macintosh operating system.
Wagie was interviewed for the position Nov. 15 and 16, while Monday and Tuesday were Riehl's days to be evaluated. Mahoney will be interviewed Nov. 27 and 28.
Reach the reporter at marc.young@asu.edu
