April 11, 2022

Open forums for vice chancellor for research and graduate school dean

Three candidates for vice chancellor for research and graduate school dean at Southern Illinois University Carbondale will meet with faculty, staff and students during a series of virtual open forums this week, beginning Tuesday, April 12. 

The candidates, in alphabetical order, are:

  • Mohammad S. Alam, special assistant to the vice president for research and graduate studies at Texas A&M-Kingsville.
  • Wesley Eugene Stites, associate vice chancellor for research and innovation at the University of Arkansas.
  • Costas Tsatsoulis, vice provost of graduate education, Missouri University of Science and Technology.

Open forums are this week

The forums give the campus community an opportunity to meet with the candidates. During their respective virtual forums via Zoom, the candidates will discuss their vision for research and the graduate school, followed by a Q&A. 

All three of the open forums will occur from noon to 12:45 p.m. The open forum schedule with Zoom registration links is:

  • Tuesday, April 12 — Mohammad S. Alam. Register here for the Zoom link.
  • Wednesday, April 13 — Wesley Eugene Stites. Register here for the Zoom link.
  • Friday, April 15 — Costas Tsatsoulis. Register here for the Zoom link. 

Separate pre-registration is required for each open forum.  An automated email will be sent to you with a link to the open forum. A panel of faculty, staff and student representatives will ask each candidate a series of questions following their presentation.    

Reporting directly to the chancellor, the vice chancellor for research and graduate school dean provides strong and effective leadership, vision and advocacy for the research, scholarly and creative mission of the university, including developing strategic, multidisciplinary and collaborative research initiatives. The candidate also must know and understand state and federal compliance and legal issues relating to research and grant funding. The candidate must have an established record of scholarship and substantial experience in graduate education and be knowledgeable of institutional needs with respect to graduate programs and work effectively with students, faculty, staff and administration.  

Candidates each have extensive experience 

Alam has been with Texas A&M-Kingsville since 2016 and in his present position since February 2021. He was dean in the university’s Frank H. Dotterweich College of Engineering from 2016 to January 2021 and is a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He also held interim executive director positions with the university’s Eagle Ford Center for Research, Education and Outreach, and the college’s High Performance Computing Center. His experience also includes professor and department chair at the University of South Alabama and director of four research labs and serving on the faculty at the University of Alabama, Purdue University-Fort Wayne and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. 

Alam earned his doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of Dayton in 1992. He earned a master’s degree in computer engineering from Wayne State University in 1989, and a master’s degree in 1985 and bachelor’s degree in 1983, both in electrical and electronic engineering, respectively, from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. 

Stites has been with the University of Arkansas since 1991 and in his present position since 2019. A professor of biochemistry in the university’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Stites served as department chair from 2014 to 2019. From 1988 to 1991, Stites participated in a postdoctoral fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. 

Stites earned his doctorate in biochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1988. He received a combined four-year bachelor’s and master’s degree in chemistry from Johns Hopkins University in 1983. 

Tsatoulis has been with Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) since September 2018 and in his current position since September 2021. A professor in the university’s Department of Computer Science, Tsatoulis served as vice chancellor of research and dean of graduate studies since his arrival. He was dean of the College of Engineering and a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of North Texas from 2008 to 2018, and interim dean of the university’s Toulouse Graduate School during the 2015-16 academic year. His other academic appointments include the University of Kansas. 

Tsatsoulis is a four-degree graduate of Purdue University. He earned his doctorate, master’s and bachelor degrees, all in electrical engineering in 1987, 1984 and 1983, respectively. He also earned a bachelor’s degree in German in 1987. 

The candidates’ full CVs are available on the chancellor’s website.