Lehigh University
Gregory C. Farrington was introduced as president of Lehigh University in May 1998. Prior to his Lehigh appointment, he had been Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania since 1990. As dean, Farrington was responsible for the academic and financial oversight of the school. Under his leadership, the school’s student academic profile earned the distinction of being among the highest of the colleges at Penn. At Penn, He established several interdisciplinary programs at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Working with the Annenberg School of Communication and the Graduate School of Fine Arts, he created new programs in digital media design and communications. He collaborated with the School of Arts and Sciences to create new master’s/bachelor’s degree programs in biotechnology, telecommunications and law. He also created joint undergraduate and graduate programs with the Law School and undergraduate programs with the School of Nursing. In addition, a management of technology program was established in conjunction with the Wharton School.
Farrington led the creation of the Institute for Medicine and Engineering, which links the schools of engineering and medicine to create a research and education center in biomedical engineering. He joined with the schools of Medicine and Arts and Sciences to form a Center for Bioinformatics. He also doubled the number of fully endowed faculty chairs, and nearly tripled the school’s endowment in six years.
He serves on numerous boards, including Clarkson University, Wharton-SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management, the Ben Franklin Partnership and the John Scott Award of Philadelphia. He has served on several national science panels and has held leadership positions in professional societies for such organizations as the National Science Foundation, the National Research Council and the Carnegie Foundation.
He is current chair of the Materials Research Society Young Investigator Award Committee, and has served as Councilor of the society, chair of the Physical Electrochemistry Committee of The Electrochemical Society, president of the International Society for Solid State Ionics and editorial board member of Chemistry of Materials, Solid State Ionics and MultiVersity.
A native of Bronxville, N.Y., he earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University in chemistry, specializing in solid state electrochemistry, in 1972. He earned his A.M. degree in chemistry from Harvard University in 1970, after receiving his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Clarkson University in 1968. He is the recipient of an honorary degree from the University of Uppsala in Sweden in 1984 and in October will receive the prestigious Cannizzaro Gold Medal of the Italian Chemical Society. Farrington holds or shares about two dozen patents and has written or edited several books and book chapters in his field.
Farrington began his career as a chemist in 1972, when he joined the General Electric Company as a staff scientist in its Corporate Research and Development Center in Schenectady, N.Y. He joined Penn in 1979 as associate professor in materials science and engineering. He was made full professor in 1984, and chaired the department from 1984 to 1987. He was then named director of Penn’s Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter, a post he held until being appointed dean. In addition to his appointment in materials science and engineering, he also held appointments in Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences and School of Nursing.
Farrington’s wife, Jean, is director for staff and resource development in Lehigh’s department of information resources. Prior to her appointment, she was head of the materials acquisitions and current periodicals department at Penn’s Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, where she oversaw a staff of 22, and a $7-million materials acquisition budget. She also chaired the committees that recommended and implemented the new information systems for the University of Pennsylvania libraries. She is the author of a number of articles and most recently a book on serials management. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of St. Lawrence University where she earned a B.A. in English in 1970, she holds a master’s degree in library science from Simmons College (1972) and a master’s degree in English from the State University of New York at Albany (1975). The Farringtons' son, Timothy, is a student at Harvard University.
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