Eminent Faculty Award
Anjan Bose always wanted to be an engineer. Growing up near a steel factory, Bose understood that there were two types of people in his hometown: those who worked in the plant and those who designed the plant. Bose wanted to be the latter.
Fast forward 40 years. To say that Bose has achieved his goal would be an understatement.
He holds WSU’s endowed professorship in power engineering, is site director of the National Science Foundation-sponsored Power Systems Engineering Research Center and is a WSU Regents professor.
From 1998-2005, he served as dean of the College of Engineering and Architecture (CEA), which boasts roughly 150-plus faculty, 75 staff and 2,500 students.
“I’ve been at WSU for 15 years, and 13 of those years were spent as either a department chair or dean,” he said. “So I am looking forward to teaching again.”
During his tenure as dean, the CEA doubled its research efforts — and doubled the amount of research funds coming into the college. This positively affects teaching in the college because the professors are teaching the latest technologies, he said.
Prior to coming to WSU, Bose was on the faculty of Arizona State University, where he directed the Electric Power Research Laboratory, a cooperative program he helped establish in 1982.
In addition, his own research group became internationally known for applying computation technology to the control and analysis of large powergrids.
“Everything about being a professor is interesting,” said Bose. “The first third of my career was spent in industry, and now I get to decide what to do. That’s the most freedom you can get from a job.”
In addition to a thriving professional career, Bose was named to the National Academy of Engineering and was appointed by the U.S. secretary of energy to serve on a blue-ribbon study team to examine several power outages in the eastern United States and the Midwest.
Bose is thrilled with his most recent award.
“This award means a lot to me,” he said. “I’ve been blessed with a lot of national and international awards, but this is one from my colleagues — and that means a lot.”
Profiles and photos in this issue by …
Articles about annual award winners in this special issue are written by Evan Epstein. Most photographs were taken by Shelly Hanks and Robert Hubner, WSU Photo Services.
