Dacheng Ren
Dacheng Ren, Ph.D., has been named the permanent associate dean for research and graduate programs in the College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS). Ren is the Stevenson Endowed Professor in the Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering, and served as interim associate dean for research and graduate programs since February of 2020.
“I enjoyed working with our talented students, faculty and staff during my interim appointment, and I am excited about the opportunity to continue. Indeed, there are a lot we can do together to promote research and graduate programs in ECS and collaboration with other colleges across the campus,” says Ren. “I look forward to continuing working with everyone.”
College of Engineering and Computer Science Dean J. Cole Smith says, “Dacheng impressed the search committee and me, our engineering and computing community, and our partners around campus with his ideas, initiative, work ethic, and compassion for our students. This is an exciting time for research at the college and Dacheng is the perfect person to lead our efforts.”
Ren’s research focuses on microbial control, biomaterials and safety of medical devices. He currently has 65 journal publications with nearly 5,000 citations and an h-index of 33, 11 issued/pending patents and more than 40 invited talks. His research has been supported by the NSF, NIH, EPA, Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and industrial sponsors. He received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Connecticut in 2003. After finishing postdoctoral training at Cornell University, he joined Syracuse University in 2006.
Ren received an Early Career Translational Research Award in Biomedical Engineering from the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation in 2009 and a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award in 2011. He was named the College Technology Educator of the Year by the Technology Alliance of Central New York in 2010. At Syracuse, Ren was a recipient of the Faculty Excellence Award from the college and the Chancellor’s Citation for Faculty Excellence and Scholarly Distinction in 2018.
