Women Engineering Deans: Nada Marie Anid, Ph.D

Women Engineering Deans

Meet Nada Marie Anid: Dean of New York Institute of Technology’s School of Engineering and Computing Sciences

Nada Anid - New York Institute of Technology

Nada Marie Anid, PHD

Nada Marie Anid, Ph.D., is the first female dean of NYIT’s School of Engineering and Computing Sciences (SoECS). In this role, she oversees 77 engineering and computing sciences faculty members and approximately 2,700 graduate and undergraduate students at campuses located in Manhattan and Old Westbury, N.Y., the Middle East, and China.

Dr. Anid embraces NYIT’s forward-thinking and applications-oriented mission and is working on several strategic partnerships between the School of Engineering and the public and private sector, including the creation of the School’s first Entrepreneurship and Technology Innovation Center (ETIC) and its three labs in the critical areas of IT & Cyber Security, Bio-engineering and Health, and Energy and Green Technologies with funding from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the New York Empire State Development (ESD).

Dr. Anid co-leads the US-China Eco Partnership collaboration “EcoPartnership on Groundwater Monitoring, Protection, and Training, started in 2013 between NYIT and Peking University. Dr. Anid is also NYIT’s Principal Investigator on a “Pathway to Cleaner Production through Latin America” project, funded by the Higher Education Development in collaboration with Illinois Institute of Technology and seven institutions across Latin America.

She has been named one of the top 50 most influential women in business in recognition of her business acumen, mentoring, and community involvement by Long Island Business News (LIBN) and as a third time honoree, was recently inducted to the LIBN Hall of Fame. Dr. Anid also received the 2010 Long Island Software and Technology Network (LISTnet) Diamond Award in recognition of her significant contributions toward the advancement of women in technology on Long Island as well as for her professional achievements in the technology field. She is also the recipient of the first-­ever Advocates for Science and Technology Award by the Science Museum of Long Island, and is an active member of the Long Island Regional Council’s Education and Workforce Committee, the NY State STEM Education Collaborative, and the Intrepid Museum’s STEM Advisory Committee.

Dr. Anid is a board member of several organizations including the Greater Long Island Clean Cities Coalition (GLICC), the Long Island’s Cyber Defense Consortium, LISTnet, the Institute for Sustainability (IfS) of the American Institute for Chemical Engineers (AIChE), the Riverdale Conservancy, and the Environment and Public Health Network of Chinese Students and Scholars (ENCSS). Dr. Anid is a Program Evaluator for the Engineering Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET), and holds leadership positions in AIChE, the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), the US Deans Engineering Council and its Public Policy, Data and STEM Committees, among others. She is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Environmental Progress and Sustainable Energy and a technical reviewer for the federal government (Department of Defense, National Science Foundation) and several journals including Environmental Science and Technology, the AIChE Journal and the Energy and Fuels Journal.

Dr. Anid earned her Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH-Stockholm). Prior to joining NYIT, she was chair and graduate program director of the Chemical Engineering Department at Manhattan College.


1. Why are engineers integral to the American economy and infrastructure? What would happen without them?

The historic roots of engineering in the United States lie in the work of army engineers on canals and railroad projects in the 1800s making engineers an integral part of American infrastructure. Since that time, engineering has evolved from civil engineering to many other disciplines (mechanical, chemical, electrical, computer) all related to infrastructure, resource exploration, manufacturing, energy, metallurgy, aerospace, communications, and defense. The impact of engineers on the industrial revolution and the digital revolution can’t be ignored.

In the U.S. and globally, engineers are the engine behind strong economies. Most recently, President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness was specifically designed to strengthen the Nation’s economy and ensure the global economic competitiveness of the USA. The council’s “national imperative” is to graduate 10,000 new American engineers per year for the next 10 years to address the nation’s engineering shortage.

The nation’s changing demographics and continued need to remain globally competitive make it clear that colleges and universities must increase the number of engineering majors. The fact is that high school students in the United States are trailing behind their international peers in STEM areas. Currently, the United States ranks 17th in science and 25th in math among other nations (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2012). In engineering, China and India graduate many more engineers than the US (Gereffi et al., 2008). In 2011, China’s engineering graduates totaled 1,000,000 (Shammas, 2011), compared to the US’ 84,599 graduates (Deffree, 2012).

Natural disasters such as Superstorm Sandy are increasing the public’s understanding of the impact of engineering on society and making it clear that America must rely on its own engineers to fortify, reinvent, and repair infrastructure when needed. Climate change is making it necessary to increase the resilience of America’s critical infrastructure including its financial centers, command and control centers, hospitals and clinics, chemical and power plants, the electric grid, and transportation networks.

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