School of Engineering Promotion and Tenure to Associate Professor, Chemical and Petroleum Engineering

For promotion and tenure to Associate Professor, it is the department’s expectation that the candidate should have developed into an effective classroom teacher and advisor with a productive, sustainable research program and a demonstrated commitment to service to the Department, School, University and the profession at large. This section is derived from the University and School of Engineering guidelines, but adds details specific to the department.

 

Process: Evaluation of teaching, research and scholarship and service is done by the department P&T committee consisting of faculty holding tenured full professor positions and tenured associate professor positions in the Chemical & Petroleum Engineering department. If the candidate wishes to be considered for promotion and tenure prior to the mandatory review year, an initial evaluation is based on the curriculum vitae and P&T forms submitted by the candidate, typically by the end of the spring semester prior to the evaluation year. Advice to the candidate is provided about the strength of the case for promotion and tenure. Solicitation of external evaluations of research and scholarly activity proceeds during the summer semester prior to the evaluation year.

 

Teaching: Candidates for promotion are typically expected to have demonstrated effectiveness in classroom teaching at undergraduate and graduate levels, including both required and elective courses. Effective advising of undergraduate and graduate students is also required. Effectiveness is evaluated according to the criteria set forth in the University guidelines, including additional performance measures such as implementation of innovative teaching methods and the writing of educational textbooks and monographs. Evidence of effective mentoring of post-doctoral research associates can also be considered.

 

Research: It is the department’s expectation that the candidate should have developed a mature, productive and sustainable research program. Such programs exhibit four characteristics:

 

1. Students completing advanced degrees in the area;

2. Multiple scholarly publications in the area;

3. Financial support for research in the area;

4. National recognition of contributions to the discipline.

 

While the proportions among them may vary, all four characteristics must be present, and at least three of them must be significantly in evidence.

 

The evaluation of research and scholarship by the department P&T committee is based on publishing customs in chemical and petroleum engineering. Technical articles in chemical and petroleum engineering frequently have joint authorship involving 2 to 5 authors and occasionally greater than this number. Where such joint authorship exists it is expected that each author has contributed significantly to the technical content of the work, but that each author is fully responsible for the scientific integrity of the entire article. Acceptance rates for our key journals are difficult to determine but rate of 1 in 3 are common. Referees are chosen by the journal editorial staff, and are normally professionals in the field from academia and/or industry, and frequently those who have published early seminal articles in the field.

 

In general, major scholarly works in chemical engineering and petroleum engineering are considered to be scientific articles in refereed journals, books, chapters in books, patents, and editorship of symposia proceedings. Other scholarly works are those in non-refereed journals, reports to governmental or other funding agencies summarizing progress on research, including final reports. The evaluation of scholarly publications by the department is based on the above criteria. Evaluations of research and scholarly work are solicited from six well-known experts who collectively work in the areas under study by the candidate.

 

Service: Candidates for promotion to associate professor with tenure are expected to have a demonstrated commitment to service to the Department, School, University and the profession at large. Commitment to university service is evidenced by active participation in regular department activities such as faculty meetings, and a degree of service on departmental committees, and possibly School and University committees. Service to the profession can be demonstrated in a variety of ways, such as reviewing manuscripts and proposals, chairing sessions at technical conferences that support the candidate’s research and scholarship. The level of service should be consistent with the percentage appointment of the candidate. Service is a necessary component of the candidate’s application for promotion with tenure, but it does not weigh in the P&T decisions as significantly as does the candidate’s record of teaching, research and scholarship.