Jenn Stroud Rossmann, Baird Professor of Mechanical Engineering, has been appointed William Jeffers Dean of Engineering effective August 1. A nationally recognized educator, researcher, and advocate for inclusive and interdisciplinary education, Rossmann brings a bold vision grounded in technical excellence and humanistic insight.
She succeeds Lauren Anderson ‘04, James T. Marcus ’50 Scholar and Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, who now serves as Lafayette’s Dean of the Faculty.
Rossmann joined Lafayette in 2005 and served as head of the Mechanical Engineering Department from 2012-2017 and 2018-19. She was the founding co-director of the Hanson Center for Inclusive STEM Education, which has a uniquely holistic and interdisciplinary mission focused on equity and inclusion. Across her leadership roles, she has worked to strengthen systems that support the thriving of students, faculty, and staff.
Her research in fluid dynamics—from simulating blood flow to analyzing the aerodynamics of Wiffle balls—has drawn national attention, with features in Wired, The Atlantic, Scientific American, NPR’s Short Wave, and the documentary YardWork, among others. Her collaboration with Mary Armstrong, Charles A. Dana Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and English, has demonstrated how coursework in gender studies can support identity formation among minoritized engineering students. Their paper “A New Way of Seeing” earned three top honors at the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) 2021 Annual Conference, including Best Overall Conference Paper.
Rossmann received ASEE’s 2023 Sterling Olmsted Award in recognition of her many contributions to the development and teaching of liberal arts in engineering education (and vice versa). She recently served as division chair for the ASEE’s Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES).
She earned her B.S. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and began her academic career at Harvey Mudd College. At Lafayette, she has mentored undergraduates in a wide range of research—from solid and fluid mechanics to sports physics. She has co-authored two engineering textbooks. She is also a fiction writer. Her debut novel, The Place You’re Supposed to Laugh, was published in 2018. She writes the essay series “An Engineer Reads a Novel” for Public Books, and her forthcoming book, Worldbuilding: The Engineering Imagination, explores how engineers shape not only systems and structures, but the social and physical worlds we inhabit. With this power, Rossmann argues, comes great responsibility.
As dean, Rossmann will lead a nationally ranked undergraduate engineering division known for combining rigorous technical education with broad intellectual exploration. Lafayette Engineering has been listed in the top 20 undergraduate engineering schools in the country by U.S. News & World Report for the last 10 years, and was recently named one of the top 20 engineering programs for women in STEM in the country by Washington Monthly.
Rossmann follows Anderson, whose visionary leadership helped shape the future of engineering at Lafayette. As department head of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Anderson played a key role in establishing molecular bioengineering laboratory facilities at Lafayette funded by the National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation program. Alongside Prof. David Brandes (Civil and Environmental Engineering), she co-led a multiyear effort to develop Integrative Engineering, the College’s first new B.S. engineering degree program in more than a century.
Anderson earned her bachelor’s in chemical engineering from Lafayette, completed her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering at the University of Virginia with support from a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, and returned to Lafayette as a faculty member in 2009. Her research explores tissue engineering and the use of thermoresponsive polymers to grow cell sheets for transplant applications.