UNM engineering professor Chaouki Abdallah was appointed University Interim Provost on Monday.
University President David Schmidly announced Abdallah’s one-year appointment, which begins July 1.
“Professor Abdallah will bring exciting new perspectives and energy to the provost’s position, as well as expertise gained during his long tenure of work at UNM,” Schmidly said. “He earned strong recommendations from every constituency on campus: faculty, students and staff. I look forward to our working together on the University’s goals during the coming year.”
Chair of the Interim Provost Search Committee, Richard Wood, said Abdallah was the best choice for the position.
“President Schmidly made an outstanding choice in selecting Dr. Chaouki Abdallah as our interim provost,” Wood said. “Abdallah will provide vision, leadership and a new beginning as UNM continues to build our mission as a research university.”
During his candidate statement, Abdallah said he hopes to increase administrative transparency at UNM.
“I want to know about issues and concerns, before they become real problems,” he said. “I believe in setting goals and priorities that can be communicated to supervisors, colleagues, staff and students. I believe in an engaged academic community that keeps the administration focused and the outside world informed.”
Abdallah is currently professor and chair in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.
