Lawrence Tech Names New President
SOUTHFIELD -- Virinder K. Moudgil has been named president of Lawrence Technological University and will assume office July 1, Lloyd E. Reuss, chairman of the Board of Trustees at the 4,500-student private university, announced Monday.
Moudgil has served as provost and led academic affairs at Oakland University since 2001. From 1994-2001, he chaired OU's Department of Biological Sciences. He joined its faculty in 1976.
He will be Lawrence Tech's seventh president, succeeding Lewis N. Walker, who has served in several Lawrence Tech leadership roles, including president since 2006, and as vice president of academic affairs and provost 1994-2006. Walker has been named to serve a one-year term as the university's chancellor beginning July 1.
"Dr. Moudgil has a strong record of leading exemplary academic progress and program development," Reuss said. "He is an excellent communicator and we anticipate that he will accelerate Lawrence Tech's advancement and services to students and the professions across Michigan and the nation."
Lawrence Tech will commemorate its 80th year with the start of the 2012 fall semester. It offers more than 100 programs through the doctoral level in Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Engineering, and Management.
Under Walker, Lawrence Tech has been aggressive in expanding programs in emerging economic sectors such as robotics, defense, and sustainability, including "fast track" certificate programs to help professionals retool themselves for new careers. Walker worked to include leadership fundamentals in all undergraduate curricula through all four years, a rare distinction in higher education outside the service academies.
More than $50 million has been spent at Lawrence Tech on facility and curricular improvements in the past decade, and some $68 million has been raised during the silent phase of a $100 million capital campaign to build an innovative Engineering, Life Sciences, and Architecture Complex, and increase scholarships and endowment.
"Lawrence Tech has a heritage of excellence and a strong mission of developing leaders through innovative and agile programs," Moudgil said. "I look forward to working with the entire Lawrence Tech community, and to help expand our base of new students, active alumni, involved donors, and industry partners. I am impressed with and passionate about Lawrence Tech's mission and commitment to public good."
Moudgil holds three degrees, including the PhD from Banaras Hindu University, which is ranked the top university in India. He was a post-doctoral Fellow at the Mayo Clinic. He has held an adjunct professorship at Wayne State University and had been a visiting scientist at universities in Serbia, France, and India.
He is an active researcher in the molecular mechanisms of steroid hormone action and the hormonal regulation of breast cancer and has received nearly $3 million in grant and research support awards from the National Institutes of Health and others.
As provost at OU, Moudgil oversees six schools, the College of Arts and Sciences, the main library, and 16 administrative units, including technology services, international studies, the business incubators, e-learning, and grants, contracts, and sponsored research.
He co-chaired the Steering Committee for the establishment of OU's medical school partnership with Beaumont Health System and played a key role in its affiliation agreement with Cooley Law School.
Moudgil chaired the Academic Officers Committee (Provost Council) of the Presidents Council of the State Universities of Michigan (2007-11). He is an active lecturer and author and has participated in or chaired a number of regional, national, and international conferences in his area of study and on higher education topics.
Moudgil's selection culminates a 10-month national search process at Lawrence Tech that attracted a large number of outstanding candidates and was aided by R. William Funk and Associates, a leading higher education executive search firm based in Dallas. A 13-person selection committee led by Trustee Doug Ebert and representing faculty, students, alumni, staff, community leaders and trustees narrowed the pool to three. Lawrence Tech's full Board of Trustees made the final selection.
Moudgil lives in Rochester Hills with his wife, Parviz Gandhi Moudgil.
Lawrence Technological University, www.ltu.edu, was founded in 1932. Bloomberg BusinessWeek lists Lawrence Tech among the nation's upper third of universities for return on undergraduate tuition investment, and highest in the Detroit metropolitan area. Lawrence Tech is also listed in the top tier of Midwestern universities by U.S. News and World Report and the Princeton Review. Students benefit from small class sizes and experienced faculty who provide a real-world, hands-on, "theory and practice" education with an emphasis on leadership. Activities on Lawrence Tech's 102-acre campus include over 60 student clubs and organizations and a growing roster of NAIA varsity sports.
