Approximately 50 candidates applied for the position. The committee spent more than a year interviewing candidates and narrowing the field. A number of foreign candidates from a wide variety of disciplines applied or were nominated for the position. Our criteria was to look for candidates with a strong emphasis in manufacturing. Leon has been the technical leader in a number of interdisciplinary areas including CIMS and the Virtual Factory and one of the true multidisciplinary individuals on campus.
Manufacturing is, by definition, multidisciplinary.
So, in addition to his technical leadership his emphasis on manufacturing positioned him at the top of the field of candidates every time. For McGinnis, the Gwaltney Chair will aid in his outreach efforts on behalf of Tech's manufacturing community. The Gwaltney Chair gives me the ability to strengthen the network between the people at Tech who are doing exciting things in manufacturing and other leading manufacturing experts around the world. Like a lot of other areas of business, manufacturing is becoming more and more an intellectual business. And, those people are in high demand.