Amherst, Massachusetts, About UMass Amherst
UMass Amherst, the Commonwealth's flagship campus, is a nationally ranked public research university offering a full range of undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees. The University sits on nearly 1,450-acres in the scenic Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, and offers a rich cultural environment in a bucolic setting close to major urban centers. In addition, the University is part of the Five Colleges (including Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, and Smith College), which adds to the intellectual energy of the region. As a campus with an increasingly diverse student body, we are looking for candidates who can operate effectively in a diverse faculty and student community, and who value collegiality, collaboration, achievement, and integrity. We encourage applications from women, minorities, LGBTQIA+ community, and individuals with a commitment to mentor under-represented demographics within engineering. We are also interested in candidates who have had non-traditional career paths, those who have paused their careers for family or pandemic reasons, or who spent time outside of academia. We are committed to helping all constituents reach their full potential, creating best-in-practice operations to support faculty scholarship and fostering excellence in student experiences inside and outside our department.
UMass Amherst is a leader in providing institutional support for faculty to combine work and family/personal responsibilities, and was listed among the Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Great Colleges to Work For.” UMass is in the top 10% of public research-intensive universities in the COACHE survey for making having and raising children compatible with the tenure-track. UMass Amherst maintains a nationally recognized NSF-sponsored ADVANCE Institutional Transformation program that seeks to increase equity in STEM fields through collaboration ( https://www.umass.edu/advance/home ). For more information on work-life balance at UMass Amherst, see https://www.umass.edu/prospective-faculty/work/balance .
The College of Engineering is ranked as the best public engineering college in New England. The Fall 2022 enrollment included 2,296 undergraduate and 741 graduate students. Research expenditures exceeded $51 M in the past year and the College is host to 15+ research centers. The College has an excellent record of developing new faculty with 14 of our current faculty members receiving prestigious NSF CAREER awards in just the last four years. A new engineering building will be constructed with a focus on Sustainable Engineering in the near future. More information can be found here: https://engineering.umass.edu/sustainable-engineering-laboratories.
Job Description
The Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MIE) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position at the assistant professor level in the area of Supply Chain Engineering and Analytics. Outstanding applicants from other areas within industrial engineering will be considered.
The appointment is expected to begin September 1, 2024.
The position is defined broadly across the entire scope of supply chain management, logistics and manufacturing systems within Industrial Engineering. Special consideration will be given to candidates who can contribute to industry engagement, as well as cross-disciplinary research and educational programs in supply chain, data analytics, decision sciences, advanced manufacturing, engineering management, and socially-engaged systems engineering. The MIE Department is especially interested in qualified candidates who can contribute, through their research, teaching and/or service, to the diversity and excellence of our vibrant academic community. We hope this broad category reflects our openness to expand the scope of our department beyond our traditional strengths. In all areas, the candidates should envision a research and teaching program consistent with the College of Engineering’s Strategic Plan .
The candidate is expected to teach existing graduate and undergraduate courses in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management and will be encouraged to develop creative new curricula in areas of their interest or across disciplines. Assistant professors in MIE are typically required to teach 2 courses per year, one each semester.
The Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering has 35 full-time faculty members, over 250 graduate students, and over 650 undergraduates. Research expenditures exceeded $6.5M in the last fiscal year. The MIE Department has a long history of successful interdisciplinary research in areas including supply chain, transportation, advanced design and manufacturing, healthcare operations, health policy, human factors, energy policy and equity, wind and renewable energy, robotics, assistive technology, and bioengineering. Academic units affiliated with the department include the UMass Transportation Center with a recent $15M award from DOT to lead the New England Region’s UTCs, the newly formed Energy Transition Institute, Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation, Center for Personalized Health Monitoring, Institute for Applied Life Sciences, Wind Energy Center, and Center for e-Design. The MIE Department and the College of Engineering have identified Advanced Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management as one of their strategic thrust areas of growth. Additional information about the Department can be obtained at mie.umass.edu .
Requirements
Candidates must have a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering, Systems Engineering, Operations Management or a closely related field, or anticipate such a degree by August 31, 2024. Applicants must demonstrate potential for scholarly excellence and developing an externally-funded research program. The successful candidate will be expected to maintain an internationally recognized scholarly presence. Candidates will also be expected to teach existing undergraduate and graduate courses in our curriculum in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management in addition to developing courses in their area of expertise.
Application Instructions
Candidates must provide the following in their application package addressed to “Supply Chain Engineering Search Committee.” Applications will be reviewed starting on October 7, 2023, and the review process will continue until the search is completed. All files must be provided in .pdf format.
A cover letter, addressed to “Supply Chain Engineering Search Committee”. The cover letter should a) introduce yourself, b) briefly describe your research interests, and c) describe your vision for this position. Page limit: 2 pages
A research statement. Candidates should situate their past research in a broader scholarly context and give their research vision for this position. Candidates are specifically asked to mention the types of scholarship they will perform, how that scholarship will be disseminated, and the expectation for how that scholarship will be funded. Statements will be evaluated based on assessment of demonstrated excellence or demonstrated promise of future excellence. Page limit: 4 pages
A teaching statement. Candidates should describe their past teaching experience and express their teaching vision for this position. Candidates are specifically asked to mention existing courses in Industrial Engineering, Analytics, and Engineering Management they are qualified to offer and also mention classes they are interested in developing. Candidates should address both undergraduate and graduate classes. Statements will be evaluated based on assessment of demonstrated excellence or demonstrated promise of future excellence. Page limit: 2 pages
A statement of vision for the candidate’s role in advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion. Candidates should list past and planned future actions to support the diversity mission of the College of Engineering and UMass ( https://www.umass.edu/diversity/about ). Page limit: 2 pages
A current curriculum vitae. The CV should be ordered as follows: 1) education, 2) employment, 3) awards and honors, 4) sponsored research (if any), 5) peer reviewed publications, 6) service, and 7) other sections as considered appropriate by the candidate.
Contact information (name, title, email address, institution) for 3 professional references. References will not be contacted until the second phase of the search.
Optional Supplemental Materials: Candidates can submit up to three recent manuscripts (articles, book chapters, etc.) representative of their research work.
Process
The steps of the process are as follows:
A minimally qualified pool of applicants is identified.
The committee will work to screen the candidates by the third week of October and form a long list of qualified candidates for Zoom interviews. Zoom interviews will commence in November.
A short list of candidates for in-person interviews will be determined by third week of November.
These candidates will be invited to interview on campus. The interviews are expected to take place in early-mid December 2023.
The committee will finalize its recommendations for hiring early January 2024.
The University is committed to active recruitment of a diverse faculty and student body. The University of Massachusetts Amherst is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer of women, minorities, protected veterans, and individuals with disabilities and encourages applications from these and other protected group members. Because broad diversity is essential to an inclusive climate and critical to the University’s goals of achieving excellence in all areas, we will holistically assess the many qualifications of each applicant and favorably consider an individual’s record working with students and colleagues with broadly diverse perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds in educational, research or other work activities. We will also favorably consider experience overcoming or helping others overcome barriers to an academic career and degree.