Babcock takes over as department chair
usan Babcock thinks the time is right to take over as chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
Faculty members in the department conduct groundbreaking research in areas such as superconductivity, quantum computing and nano-spin devices. Babcock, a faculty member in the department since 1990, said the research being conducted in the department attracted her to the chair’s post. In addition, the department has hired three new faculty members in recent months — Assistant Professors Paul Evans, Padma Gopalan, and Paul Voyles.
“I think it’s an exciting time for our department with three new faculty members,” said Babcock, who assumed the chair’s post this summer. “It gives the department an opportunity for some growth. It’s an exciting field and with new people, it’s a time to do exciting things.”
Babcock plans to keep her hand in her own research, which focuses on defect structures in materials and electron microscopy. She will continue to advise a small group of graduate students, and maintain her ties to the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center.
Babcock received her BS (1982) and her PhD (1987) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and came to the College of Engineering as a post-doctoral student in the Applied Superconductivity Center. She joined the department’s faculty three years later.
Babcock becomes the first woman to chair an academic department in the college’s history. She said that wasn’t her motivation for pursuing the post, but notes its importance in a field that has struggled to attract women.
“I think it’s important for women in the college to take on leadership roles,” she said. “It’s important to have women in the profession to get more ideas and more ways of thinking about things.”
In her spare time, Babcock spends time with her family – former department faculty member Tom Kelly and their two children – coaches in a youth soccer league, and plays herself in a women’s soccer league.
