DEPARTMENT HISTORY |
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During the 1989-90 academic year Kunz was named Dean of Engineering. His faculty status was also transferred to Electrical Engineering so that it would be within the Engineering College. Suits, who was relatively junior and had just received promotion to Associate Professor, took over as Head of Physics for the next five years. Also during 1989-90 Physics Professor Max Seel became Dean of Sciences and Arts. Kunz's appointment as Dean for "the other College" was certainly controversial across campus, and Suits' appointment as Head was controversial within the department.
In 1995, after an exhaustive external search, J. Bruce Rafert was appointed Department Head. Rafert came from Florida Tech with an astronomy and remote sensing background. With the original need for a condensed matter focus now long forgotten, he helped the department see the advantages of broadening its research emphasis. This resulted in a re-introduction of astronomy and astrophysics into the curriculum, and several faculty hires in atmospheric physics and in astrophysics were made. Meanwhile, MTU had decided to change its academic year calendar from a quarter system to a semester system. Thus, the entire curriculum was carefully revisited and restructured. In addition, in response to student demand, the Physics department initiated an interdisciplinary PhD proposal for a degree in "Engineering Physics." That program began in 2001.
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The graduate and research programs had grown
dramatically from the early 1980's through the 1990's relying largely
on the computational and condensed matter/materials experimental emphasis.
By 1995 annual research expenditures by the department were close to one-half
million dollars, there were almost 2 publications per faculty member per year,
and about 30 graduate students enrolled.
