Mohammad Dehghani

Mohammad "Mo" Dehghani (born July 27, 1955) is a higher education administrator who currently serves as chancellor of Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Missouri. He also serves as president and chief executive officer of the Kummer Institute Foundation, as an advisory trustee to the Southwest Research Institute, and on the visiting advisory board of the Winston Chung Global Energy Center at the University of California, Riverside.
Dehghani formerly served as founding director of the Johns Hopkins University Systems Institute, where he established research and application programs with numerous federal research agencies. In 2013, he joined Stevens Institute of Technology, where he served as vice provost for research, innovation, and entrepreneurship. He became chancellor of Missouri University of Science and Technology, or Missouri S&T, in 2019.
As chancellor at Missouri S&T, Dehghani helped secure a $300 million gift from June and Fred Kummer. This gift, the largest in Missouri higher education history, established the Kummer Institute for Student Success, Research and Economic Development.
Dehghani is married to Mina Saffari, a pharmacologist. They have one son, Devon.
== Early Life and Education ==
Dehghani was born in Tehran, Iran. He immigrated to the United States in 1974. He attended Louisiana State University where he earned a Bachelor of Science (1980), Master of Science (1982), and Ph.D. (1987) in mechanical engineering. While pursuing his Ph.D., Dehghani worked for both Ethyl Corporation and Centerpoint, Inc. (1983-1985). He also held a postdoctoral National Science Foundation and American Society of Engineering Education internship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1988)https://magazine.mst.edu/files/2019/12/FW19.pdf
== Career ==
Dehghani began his career at Ohio University (1987-1996) where he developed and taught courses for undergraduate and graduate students in engineering design, system design, and design optimization. He also served two terms on the faculty senate. The university granted him two faculty fellowship leaves (1994-1995 and 1996-1997). First with Boeing and then with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Dehghani initiated process modeling projects.Seth Elkin, “Engineering Students Build Cars,” The Post, April 1, 1991, 4, Faculty Fellowship Leaves, 1994-1995, Ohio University, Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of Trustees of Ohio University, April 22, 1994, https://www.ohio.edu/sites/default/files/sites/trustees/files/1994%20April%20Minutes.PDF, accessed May 20, 2022, and Faculty Fellowship Leaves, 1996-1997, Ohio University, Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of Trustees of Ohio University, April 26-27, 1996, https://www.ohio.edu/sites/default/files/sites/trustees/files/1996%20April%20Minutes.PDF, accessed May 20, 2022.
Lawrence Livermore hired Dehghani in 1996 as a systems engineer. He soon became department head of the Engineering Systems Design and Fabrication Group, then deputy division leader of the New Technology Division, and, ultimately, to division leader while also serving as director of External Relations with Academia.
In 2008, Dehghani became professor of mechanical engineering and associate director for engineering, design, and fabrication at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, which had over 4,000 engineers, scientists, and staff. Three years later, Dehghani was the founding director of the Johns Hopkins University Systems Institute.
In 2013, Dehghani joined Stevens Institute of Technology as professor of systems and enterprises and as vice provost for research, innovation, and entrepreneurship. He also served as chair of the Stevens Venture Center Advisory Board and on the board of directors of the Research & Development Council of New Jersey.Careaga, “Leading into the Future.”
== Chancellor of Missouri University of Science and Technology, 2019-present ==
On August 1, 2019, Dehghani became chancellor of Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Missouri. The institution began as a land-grant school of mines and metallurgy in 1871 and for nearly a century was a division of the University of Missouri in Columbia. In 1963, renamed the University of Missouri at Rolla, the institution became part of the new University of Missouri System with campuses in Columbia, Rolla, Kansas City, and St. Louis. A technological research university with 101 degrees in 40 areas of study, it became Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) in 2008.Larry Gragg, Forged in Gold: Missouri S&T’s First 150 Years (Marceline, MO: Walsworth, 2020).
Dehghani became the 9th chancellor, 22nd leader of Missouri S&T. (Prior to 1963, campus leaders held the title of director or dean, but since have carried the title of chancellor.) Like his predecessors, Dehghani reports to the president of the University of Missouri System, a position held by Mun Choi since 2017.
His strategic vision for the campus is to reach three “North Star” goals by 2030: elevate S&T from its current status as a Carnegie R2 institution to a Carnegie R1 institution (very high research activity), achieve a top 100 ranking among national doctoral-granting universities as measured by U.S. News & World Report, and increase campus enrollment to 12,000 with a third of them being master’s and Ph.D. students.North Star Goals, Office of the Chancellor, Missouri S&T, https://chancellor.mst.edu/initiatives/north-star/, accessed June 10, 2022.
Dehghani led Missouri S&T during its 150th anniversary celebrations in 2020-2021 and during the world’s COVID-19 pandemic. 
== Historic $300 million gift ==
In October 2020, the university received the largest single gift to any university, public or private, in the state of Missouri. The $300 million gift from June and Fred Kummer established a new foundation to create the Kummer Institute for Student Success, Research and Economic Development. The gift also established the Kummer College of Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Development at Missouri S&T, develop new areas for research, provide scholarships and fellowships for students, and bolster the Rolla, Missouri|Rolla region's economy.
Category:1955 births
Category:Educational administrators