Saneev Kulkarni named dean of Princeton

Sanjeev Kulkarni, professor of electrical engineering and director of the Keller Center, has been appointed as the next dean of the Princeton University Graduate School, effective 31 March.

His appointment was recommended by Princeton president Christopher L. Eisgruber and approved by the board of trustees at their 25 January meeting. He succeeds William Russel, who has served as dean since 2002 and who announced in September that he would step down this year

"Sanjeev Kulkarni will be a spectacular dean for Princeton's Graduate School," said Eisgruber. "Sanj has a well-deserved reputation for excellence as an interdisciplinary scholar, a versatile administrator and a constructive colleague.  I have no doubt that Sanj is the right person to build upon Bill Russel's many fine accomplishments as dean of the Graduate School."

A search committee composed of faculty members and graduate students proposed the selection of Kulkarni, who joined the Princeton faculty in 1991.

Kulkarni, who is also an associated faculty member in the Department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering and in the Department of Philosophy, served as associate dean for academic affairs in the School of Engineering and Applied Science from 2003 to 2005; was the master of Butler College, an undergraduate residential college, from 2004 to 2012; and since 2011 has been the director of the Keller Center, which has the broad aim to "educate students to be leaders in a technology-driven society."

The Graduate School enrolls about 2,600 students pursuing master's and doctoral degrees in 42 departments and programs. The dean reports to Provost David Lee.

Kulkarni said he appreciates the chance to serve the University and have an impact in a new role.

Kulkarni has had a distinguished career as a researcher and educator at Princeton.

His research spans a broad range of areas related to understanding fundamental limits and developing methods for processing data and information, with a focus on information theory, machine learning, statistical pattern recognition, and signal and image processing.

Due to the research's interdisciplinary nature, he has worked extensively with the philosophy department as well as colleagues in computer science, psychology, and operations research and financial engineering.

One of his projects is an interdisciplinary, multi-institution collaboration through the National Science Foundation-funded Center for Science of Information, which seeks to provide quantitative understanding of information representation, processing, and communication in biological, social and engineered systems. Kulkarni is a fellow of the IEEE, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Kulkarni has been an active participant in many departmental, school, and university-wide committees and advisory groups.

Kulkarni holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics, all from Clarkson University. After completing a master's degree in electrical engineering at Stanford University, he earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.