Ruben M. Savizky, Ph.D., professor of chemistry, has accepted the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs position at the Albert Nerken School of Engineering. Some of his responsibilities in this role include overseeing day-to-day operations of the undergraduate engineering program; advising first-year students; overseeing the Academic Resource Center and the First-Year Seminar Series; and handling many student-related issues in the School of Engineering.

Dean Savizky, a native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, received his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from The Cooper Union in 1998, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in chemistry from Yale University. His dissertation was on “Synthetic and Biophysical Effort Toward an Understanding of RNA Structure,” advised by Professors David J. Austin and Donald M. Crothers.

Dean Savizky began his teaching career serving as teaching assistant for two years in grad school. Shortly after, he was hired as an adjunct instructor at The Cooper Union for one semester and then got promoted throughout the years from assistant professor to associate professor to professor, where he currently teaches numerous chemistry courses to undergraduate students. Dean Savizky is dedicated to undergraduate education and values the importance of assisting high school students, particularly those with minority backgrounds. He serves as academic advisor to the Cooper Union Chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and helped rebuild the chapter after it was defunct for several years. Dean Savizky also participated in the Cooper Union Retraining Program for Immigrant Engineers, where he taught courses in analytical chemistry. He also supervised students interested in pharmaceutical and computational chemistry research as part of our Summer STEM Program.

In his spare time, Dean Savizky enjoys traveling with his wife and two children. He strives to exercise regularly and particularly enjoys lifting heavy objects. He is also a mini-golf enthusiast, amateur tango dancer, and karaoke fan.

“I’m absolutely thrilled and honored to join Deans Shoop and Shay as an associate dean in the Albert Nerken School of Engineering," says Dean Savizky. "My connection to Cooper Union started when I was a teenager in high school, when I participated in their summer internship program. That led me to attend Cooper as an undergraduate, where I spent four wonderful years. As a graduate student, I found myself coming back to Cooper Union to give invited talks to undergraduates about research and academic matters, and I was fortunate enough to join the faculty in 2005. As a proud alum, I feel this position provides me with a fantastic opportunity to help future generations of Cooper students and is my way of 'giving back' for the education and training I received as an undergraduate. I am extremely excited to work with the entire Cooper community this year, particularly since we are in such a unique point in time right now. I look forward to the challenges that lie ahead and am confident that we can overcome them, together!”