Shelbie Harris

News Editor

Multiple departments within the College of Science and Engineering recently merged as a means to generate synergy and additional collaborative opportunities.

The Department of Physics, Nuclear and Electrical Engineering was created by combining the departments of Physics, Nuclear Engineering and Health Physics and Electrical Engineering.

“One very important thing we need to understand in Idaho, particularly ISU, is that we have great opportunities with the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and other national labs,” said Cornelis Van der Schyf, vice president for research and dean of the graduate school. “One major aspect of strength for ISU is energy research.”

The individual components of each department’s part of the merger will still be present, and no job losses will result from this action, Van der Schyf said, adding that because the structure of these departments were previously aligned as solely academic, the people involved remained somewhat sequestered from working with a department outside of their own.

By merging the departments together, those involved with Physics, Nuclear and Electrical Engineering and Health Physics will be compensated for working with others outside of their specific emphases.

“We wanted nuclear engineers to talk more with health physicists or electrical engineers,” Van der Schyf said. “With each of these individual departments we have excellent faculty members, and we want to get them together in one big department so that they don’t have to worry about competing with one another over resources.”

Van der Schyf made what he described as a capital infusion, or significant monetary commitment, of six figures to the new department in order to enhance collaborative research.

Wendland Beezhold, who came to ISU in 2000 as a visiting professor, and has served as professor emeritus since 2007, will now serve as the chair for the department.

Creating opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to receive mentorship and integrative leadership from interdisciplinary teams was also an important element regarding the merger.

“We’re trying to do everything we can in favor of the students,” said Richard Brey, interim dean for the College of Science and Engineering. “We’re trying to give them a much better education at as low of cost as we can manage. That’s what our missions all about, and our most important responsibility.”

Improving relationships with academic departments and industry specific organizations was also an important factor considered with the departmental merger, with Van der Schyf specifically mentioning more emphasis on research conducted at the Idaho Accelerator Center (IAC), Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES), and the Research in Innovation and Science Institute (RISE) Complex.

The merger focuses on making these programs more efficient, less expensive and more transparent to all students, and Van der Schyf said the decision to merge these departments had nothing to do with the reduction of ISU’s Carnegie classification.

According to the Carnegie website, “The Carnegie Classification has been the leading framework for recognizing and describing institutional diversity in U.S. higher education for the past four and a half decades. Starting in 1970, the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education developed a classification of colleges and universities to support its program of research and policy analysis.”

For the 2010 edition, ISU was classified as a research high institution, only one classification level from the top of the list, however, for the 2015, edition ISU will be labeled as a university with moderate research activity.

The data used to classify ISU as a high research institution in 2010 came from 2008-2009, a time ISU was still receiving earmark grants provided for research.

“Research faculty at ISU is amazing,” Van der Schyf said. “Our faculty went on without earmarks and although grant research money went down, research efforts continued.”