LETTER: Hinton is very qualified

Dear Editor,

I have been startled to see the controversy in the newspapers and TV over the hiring of Scott Hinton as the Dean of Engineering at Utah State University. It has been unfortunate that Dean Hinton has been a victim of these articles focusing only on the PhD issue. I would like to illuminate some of his accomplishments, which led to the dean search committee recommending Hinton despite the fact that he did not hold a PhD.

At the time of our search he was Department Head of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Kansas and occupied the Deane E. Ackers Distinguished Professor Chair. He had made great advances there in incorporating emerging technology into new and innovative teaching methods. He had previously occupied the Hudson Moore Jr. endowed chair at the University of Colorado, and prior to that he had occupied the NSERC/BNR Photonic Systems endowed chair at McGill University in Canada. He had occupied endowed chairs as a full professor at three prestigious universities. The committee was greatly impressed that he had recently been recognized for his accomplishments by being elevated to the rank of “Fellow” in two very prominent national professional organizations (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and the Optical Society of America (OSA)). These are very difficult to achieve honors accorded by professional peers in recognition of lifetime contributions and accomplishments. Achieving fellow status in one professional organization is rare, and being inducted in two before the age of 50 is just plain incredible. Dean Hinton is presently bringing national recognition to USU by being selected to serve as the President of IEEE’s Laser and Electro-Optical Society (LEOS), a professional organization of about 10,000 members internationally. He has been the author, co-author, or editor of 17 professional books or chapters of books that are widely utilized in his field.

In addition to his academic teaching and leadership experience, Dean Hinton brings to USU valuable industrial research experience. He worked at the prestigious AT&T Bell Laboratory for 11 years. For much of that time he was a supervisor or head of a major department, directing the efforts of more than 25 PhD’s at this famous institution. He has been an author on 35 professional journal articles and has been awarded 12 patents for his technical achievements. He has presented ninety papers at professional conferences, being specifically sought out as an “invited” speaker at 28 of these conferences.

His interview at USU was superb, but the committee debated long and hard about recommending an individual without a PhD for this important position. Hinton’s amazing set of professional achievements and his successful demonstration of academic and industrial leadership experience were impressive enough to merit that overwhelming recommendation. He indeed had “earned” the equivalent of a PhD several times over. We are fortunate to have him here at USU.

Any implication that the search committee was negatively influenced by the previous appointment of two other women’s deans is false. The University community has received these appointments very positively as an example of well-respected and competent persons selected because of their strengths and not their gender.

Allan J. Steed