Boston, MA – September 1, 2005 – Dr. Zorica Pantic, the new President of Wentworth Institute of Technology, has a proven track record in raising the scope and quality of education programs at institutions of higher learning.

Dr. Pantic is currently the Founding Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). During her four years of deanship at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and four years as Director of the School of Engineering at San Francisco State University (SFSU), she has been an agent of change and a champion for excellence and diversity.

As the Engineering Dean at UTSA, she spearheaded the College and UTSA's efforts to become a flagship university in the state of Texas and a top-tier research university in the U.S.

Under her leadership, the UTSA College of Engineering started three new PhD programs (Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Environmental Science and Engineering), one MS program (Computer Engineering), and developed a proposal for one PhD program (Mechanical Engineering).

The college created a new Department of Biomedical Engineering and a Center for Response and Security Engineering and Technology, doubled the number of faculty, and increased its research funding 10-fold to $7 million in active grants.

Dr. Pantic also secured $2.5 million in federal funding to establish a Material Science and Engineering Laboratory at the former Kelly Air Force Base. Through strategic partnerships with various state and national agencies, national companies and small businesses, she has raised more than $5 million in various donations and equipment grants.

She revived the relationship with the engineering alumni and was instrumental in securing a $250,000 endowment donation, the single largest alumni gift to the College and UTSA. In the last four years, the College increased its enrollment by 75%, being especially effective in attracting female students (83% enrollment increase) and minorities (50% of students are Hispanics).

For these recruiting -- as well as retention -- successes, the College was featured in PRISM , the magazine of the American Society for Engineering Education, as the new look of engineering. The College was also ranked 16 th among the top producers of Hispanic Engineers in the U.S. and is featured in the June issue of Hispanic Engineer and Information Technology Magazine .

The increase in excellence, size and visibility also resulted in an outstanding re-accreditation and improved ranking of the engineering programs by US News & World Report .

San Francisco State Experience
While at SFSU, through strong and effective leadership, she improved the engineering programs in quality, size and visibility, and, as a result -- for the first time in the SFSU history – the programs were ranked among the top 50 undergraduate programs by US News & World Report .

She established a Partnership for Engineering Education that resulted in 30 percent enrollment increase and played a crucial role in shaping and bringing to life a partnership with a neighboring community college to offer upper-division engineering courses there.

This project now serves as a blueprint for cooperation between the 23-campus California State University (CSU) system, of which San Francisco State is a member, and California's community colleges. Through a partnership with the local chapter of the Institute for Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) and a major grant from the National Science Foundation, she established a Center for Applied Electromagnetics that supports undergraduate and graduate research.

Dr. Pantic was active at the state-level fundraising for engineering programs. She worked with the fellow CSU Engineering Deans on the successful $10-million California Workforce Initiative to support strategic disciplines such as agriculture, biotechnology, computer science, engineering, and nursing. She also serves on the Executive Committee of the Texas Engineering and Technology Consortium, a private-public partnership that raised $8 million to increase the number of engineering and computer science graduates in the state of Texas.

Dr. Pantic Tanner received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Nis, Yugoslavia (Serbia), in 1975, 1978, and 1982, respectively. She has 30 years of academic and teaching experience. She served on the engineering faculty of the University of Nis (1975-1984), SFSU (1989-2001), and UTSA (2001-2004). She was a Fulbright Fellow and a Visiting Scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1984-1989. She has published more than 80 journal and conference papers.

Dr. Pantic is a Senior Member of IEEE and serves on various committees of the IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility Society (EMC- S). She served on the EMC-S Board of Directors and as Chair, Vice-Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary of the Santa Clara Valley EMC-S Chapter. She is also a member of the American Society for Engineering Education and serves on the ASEE Projects Board, President's Award Committee, and Contact Committee.

She is a member of the IEEE Women in Engineering, Society of Women Engineers, and American Society for Higher Education, as well as a member of the Engineering Deans Council and the EDC Public Policy Committee. She served on various National Academy of Engineering panels and committees. Dr. Pantic received the Woman Entrepreneur of the Year award from the San Antonio Women Chamber of Commerce and is a graduate of the Leadership America program.