Four Faculty Achieve Emeriti Status

Four College of Engineering faculty—Michele Marcolongo, PhD, Roger Marino, PhD, James Mitchell and Raj Mutharasan, PhD—have been granted faculty emeriti status after long careers of teaching and service to Drexel.

Marcolongo, who will assume the title of professor emerita, joined Drexel’s faculty in 1997 as assistant professor in Materials Science and Engineering, During her tenure, she held numerous leadership positions both in the College and for the university at large. She has served as Associate Vice Provost for Research, Senior Associate Vice Provost for Translational Research and Associate Dean for Intellectual Property Development. Professor Emerita Marcolongo also served on the University’s Executive Planning Committee, the team responsible for setting the new Strategic Plan to guide the next decade of innovation at Drexel.

Professor Emerita Marcolongo’s research focus is on using biomaterials and engineered biomedical solutions to treat disease. Her research has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Education, among others. She was recently named the Drosdick Endowed Dean of the College of Engineering at Villanova University.

Marino, who will assume the title of associate teaching professor emeritus, earned his PhD in Civil Engineering from Drexel in 2006 and immediately began teaching as an adjunct professor at both Drexel and Widener University. He joined Drexel full-time in 2010 as part of the Drexel at BCC program at Burlington County College. He moved to the main campus in 2014, and during his tenure, taught made significant contributions to Construction Management in the former Goodwin College of Professional Studies; Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering (CAEE); Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics; and the common freshman and sophomore year core curriculum in the college. He has taught thousands of Drexel engineering students across more than 20 different courses.

Associate Teaching Professor Emeritus Marino has supervised one MS and two PhD student theses and has served as a mentor to more than thirty capstone senior design teams in CAEE and MEM. His expertise is in the areas of geosynthetics and he has given conference presentations in Japan, the U.K. and Spain. His work on improving Drexel pedagogy and teaching and his collaboration with our professional advising staff and other faculty have led to multiple presented papers at American Society of Engineering Education conferences. In recognition for his contributions and dedication, he received the Outstanding Teacher Award from the College of Engineering in 2019. As an emeritus teacher, he will lead classes in MEM and CAEE on an adjunct basis while he completes work on a collaborative study of first-year engineering education, working with the college’s First-Year Engineering Coordinator Dr. Johanna Casale, and serving on the PhD Committee for a Candidate in CAEE.

Mitchell, who will become professor emeritus, joined the Drexel faculty in 1988 as an associate professor immediately following a career of 15 years as an architect, including holding the position of principal at two design firms. He earned a BA in applied physics and an MS in fluid mechanics from Harvard University, and a master’s in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. Throughout his time at Drexel, he has been a passionate advocate for exceptional teaching, a champion of undergraduate engineering students. He previously served as the interim department head of CAEE and is the long-time developer and director of the architectural engineering program. He is the founder and former co-director of the Faculty Development Center, the precursor to today’s Teaching and Learning Center. Mitchell has twice served as associate dean of undergraduate affairs for the College, most recently from 2015 to 2019. In that role, he oversaw and contributed significantly to the College’s recent successful ABET visit. Mitchell has earned a number of awards at Drexel, including a College of Engineering Teaching Excellence Award (2013), College of Engineering Outstanding Teaching Award (2004), Drexel University Senior Faculty Award, Undergraduate Level (Teaching Excellence – 2002), and Drexel University Award for Outstanding Service to the University (2001).

Mutharasan, who will also become professor emeritus, joined the faculty in 1974 as assistant teaching professor, moving over to the tenure-track in 1976, and was appointed to the Fletcher Professorship in 1999. He holds a bachelor’s degree from IIT Madras, India and a PhD in chemical engineering from Drexel. His research has focused on process control, mathematical modeling of chemical engineering systems, biochemical engineering, process metallurgy, cell culture technology, and biosensors, leading to over 150 peer reviewed publications. Mutharasan has been awarded 12 patents, many on his invention of a cantilever biosensor for cancer and pathogen detection. In service to the University, he held the position of interim dean of the College from 1997 to 2000. He also led the development of the graduate MS degree program in CBE in the early 1980s. Mutharasan served as a National Science Foundation program director, initially of Nanobiosensing, and later of Cellular and Biochemical in CBET from 2014 to 2017. He was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS, 2011), Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE, 2006), and Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE, 2001). He has served on the Editorial Boards of Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Sensors Letters, and Metallurgical Transactions B.

In recognition of his research, teaching, and service, he has received Drexel’s Research Award, 106 Award, Distinguished Service Award, and Lindback Teaching Award.