Source: Kevin Lease, 785-532-7180, lease@k-state.edu
Photo available. Contact media@k-state.edu or 785-532-6415.
News release prepared by: Beth Bohn, 785-532-6415, bbohn@k-state.edu
Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008
KEVIN LEASE TO SERVE AS PART-TIME INTERIM ASSOCIATE DEAN OF THE K-STATE GRADUATE SCHOOL
MANHATTAN -- A Kansas State University faculty member who served as director of his department's graduate program is now serving as part-time interim associate dean of the K-State Graduate School.
Kevin Lease, an associate professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering and director of the K-State Mechanical Testing and Evaluation Laboratory, is an award-winning teacher and adviser at K-State.
"I am pleased that Dr. Lease has accepted this new challenge," said Carol Shanklin, interim dean of the K-State Graduate School. "Kevin's experience as graduate program director in the department of mechanical and nuclear engineering, as well as his experience mentoring graduate students, will be valuable in his new appointment. The Graduate School staff look forward to having Kevin join our team in support of the graduate enterprise at K-State."
Lease served as director of the graduate program for the department of mechanical and nuclear engineering from 2001-2006. He also has been a member of K-State's graduate faculty since joining the university in 1994 and has supervised the work of more than 20 K-State graduate students.
"Over the past several years I have had the opportunity to work on a wide variety of graduate education matters and have developed a great deal of respect for the K-State Graduate School," Lease said. "I am very interested and excited to join the Graduate School team and begin my new duties."
Lease is the recipient of and has been nominated for several K-State teaching and advising honors. He received the department of mechanical and nuclear engineering's Outstanding Adviser Award in 2007, and its Outstanding Educator Award in 2003; the Women in Science and Engineering Program's Making a Difference Award in 2005; the K-State Myers-Alford Memorial Teaching Award in 2004; a Big 12 Conference Faculty Fellowship in 2003; and the Society of Automotive Engineers' Ralph Teetor Education Award in 2002.
Lease is a graduate of the University of Iowa, where he earned a bachelor's, master's and doctorate, all in mechanical engineering.
At K-State, Lease has served on numerous department, college and university committees. He currently is a member of the K-State Graduate Council's Assessment and Review Committee and chair of the planning committee of the Industrial Advisory Board of the department of mechanical and nuclear.
Lease's teaching and research interests include deformation, fatigue and fracture of engineering materials, with an emphasis on the experimental analysis of these areas. His work has received funding from the U.S. Army, Department of Defense, NASA and the Aircraft Design and Manufacturing Research Center, as well as from private industry. He also has authored or co-authored several refereed journal and technical articles and was co-editor of the book "Multiaxial Fatigue of an Induction Hardened Shaft."
His professional and honorary affiliations include the American Society of Testing and Materials, American Society of Mechanical Engineering, American Society for Engineering Education, Society of Automotive Engineers and Sigma Xi.