Darryl Pines, Ph.D.
Nariman Farvardin Professor and Dean A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

Darryll J. Pines has served as Dean and Nariman Farvardin Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the Clark School since January 2009. He first arrived at the Clark School in 1995 as an assistant professor and then served as Chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering from 2006 to 2009. As Dean, Pines has led the development of the Clark School's current strategic plan and achieved notable successes in key areas, such as improving teaching in fundamental undergraduate courses and raising student retention; achieving success in national and international student competitions; placing new emphasis on sustainability engineering and service learning; promoting STEM education among high school students; increasing the impact of research programs; and expanding philanthropic contributions to the school. Today, the school's one-year undergraduate retention rate and six-year graduation rate is 87.6 percent and 74.2 percent respectively; the university's Solar Decathlon team placed first worldwide in a recent competition against other leading universities; the University's Engineers Without Borders chapter is considered one of the nation's best; and the Engineering Sustainability Workshop launched by Pines has become a key campus event. At a national level Pines has testified before Congress on STEM education and has led an effort as part of the American Society for Engineering Education-ASEE Deans Council's K - 12 STEM Committee to develop a potential College Board AP Exam in Engineering. He is the current Secretary on the Executive Committee of the National GEM Consortium, a national non-profit providing programming and full fellowships to support increasing untapped domestic human capital at the graduate level in STEM fields. Pines' current research focuses on structural dynamics, including structural health monitoring and prognosis, smart sensors, and adaptive, morphing, and biologically-inspired structures, as well as the guidance, navigation, and control of uninhabited aerospace vehicles. He is a fellow of the Institute of Physics, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and has received an NSF CAREER Award. Pines received a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.