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University of Alabama Huntsville names Srinath Ekkad engineering dean
Ekkad brings nearly three decades of academic and research leadership experience to the role.
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Malvika Choudhary - Mon, 08, Jun 2026
- 17:20 EDT
- 35
Srinath Ekkad / University of Alabama in Huntsville
The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) appointed Indian-American professor Srinath Ekkad as the next dean of its College of Engineering following a national search, effective Aug. 5.
Ekkad joins UAH from North Carolina State University, where he has served as professor and head of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering since 2017.
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Announcing the appointment, UAH provost and executive vice president for academic affairs David Puleo said Ekkad's leadership record distinguished him among a strong pool of candidates.
“Dr. Ekkad's record of building faculty, strategically growing undergraduate enrollment, enhancing graduate education, expanding research, and cultivating industry and alumni relationships made him the clear choice from a strong national candidate pool,” Puleo said.
A specialist in thermal sciences and heat transfer, Ekkad has built a research portfolio supported by federal agencies and major industry partners. University officials said his career has combined research achievements with a focus on student success through experiential and project-based learning initiatives.
“What sets him apart as a leader, however, is the integration of that research identity with a genuine commitment to the undergraduate experience,” Puleo said. “He has championed experiential and project-based learning as tools not only for student success but for connecting the college to the regional industry ecosystem – a philosophy well suited to Huntsville's unparalleled concentration of defense, aerospace, and technology employers.”
Ekkad will assume leadership of the college as it prepares to open the Raymond B. Jones Engineering Building and continues efforts to expand its research activity and graduate programs.
The College of Engineering is UAH's largest academic unit, enrolling more than 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students and accounting for more than 35 percent of the university's total enrollment.
Puleo said Ekkad's priorities align closely with the college's strategic goals.
“Dr. Ekkad's priorities – expanding graduate enrollment and research output, deepening partnerships with Redstone Arsenal, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and Cummings Research Park, and building a pipeline of industry-engaged undergraduates – align directly with where the college needs to go,” he said. “I am confident he will accelerate that momentum.”
Before joining NC State, Ekkad held faculty and leadership roles at Virginia Tech and Louisiana State University. At Virginia Tech, he served as associate vice president for research and directed collaborative research initiatives with aerospace manufacturer Rolls-Royce. Earlier in his career, he worked as a senior project engineer at the company, focusing on gas turbine technologies.
Ekkad is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
He earned a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University, where his doctoral research focused on gas turbine cooling. He also holds a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Arizona State University and a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University.
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