Eleanor Baum Eleanor Baum is Dean of Engineering at The Cooper Union in New York City. She is also Executive Director of the Cooper Union Research Foundation. She is an electrical engineer who recieved her Ph.D. from Polytechnic University and her undergraduate education at City College of New York. She has worked in the aerospace industry and now consults for both government and industry. In addition, she is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEEE), the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). She is the author of many papers in technical journals. Dr. Baum is a director of Allegheny Power Systems Inc., the United States Trust Company, and of Avnet Corporation. She is a trustee of Embry Riddle University and of Webb Institute. Dr. Baum has recieved honorary doctorates from Notre Dame University, Union College, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Trinity College, and the Colorado School of Mines. Dr. Baum is past-president of the American society for Engineering Education and is past-chair of the National Engineering Deans Council. She has been very active in matters dealing with engineering education and research. She is a leader in recruitment and retention efforts to increase the number of women and minorities in the engineering profession and is a frequent writer and speaker on this topic. She is past chair of the Board of Governors of the New York Academy of Sciences. She is a member of the National Research Council's Commission on Engineering Education and Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems. For six years she was on the Advisory Committee of the National Science Foundation's Engineering Directorate. She is a member of the Board of Visitors at Duke University, the University of Michigan, and Chair of the Advisory Board to the United States Merchant Marine Academy. Dr. Baum served on the selection committee for the U.S. Medal of Technology and was a member of the Electric Power Research Institute Advisory Council. Dean Baum chaired the Committee of Examiners for the Graduate Record Examination and has been on the Board of Governors of the order of the Engineer. She is Chair of the Engineering Workforce Commission, and served on the Competitiveness Policy Council. Dr. Baum is on the board of the New York Building Congress. Dr. Baum has been deeply involved with engineering accreditation activities. She is past president of the Accreditation Board of Engineering & Technology (ABET), and is on the board of CHEA (Council on Higher Education Accreditation). She is Chair of the Washington Accord, an international group dealing with mutual recognition agreements. Dr. Baum has recieved many awards: She was awarded the CCNY Townsend Harris medal in 1997. She recieved the Gruenwald Award from IEEE for outstanding contributions to engineering education in 1997; she was a founding inductee in the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame in 1996; Engineer of the Year from the Engineering Joint Council of Long Island in 1995; the Engineering Achievement award from Michigan Technological University in 1995; the Outstanding Women in Science award in 1992 from AWIS; the Dean's Medallion from Michigan State University in 1992; the Upward Mobility Award from the Society of Women Engineers in 1990, and the Woman of Distinction Award from the National Association of Student Leaders in 1990. She was the national winner of the 1988 Emily Warren Roebling Award presented by the National Women's Hall of Fame. She recieved the Engineering Achievement Award in 1987 from the Long Island Federation of Technology (LIFT); the Outstanding Alumnus Achievement Awards from both CCNY and from Polytechnic University in 1986. Dr. Baum has been active in the National Science Foundation effort to explore areas of cooperation between universities in the former Soviet Republic, and American universities and she serves on a National Research Council U.S.-Japan Bilateral Force on Engineering Education. She has been on a national taskforce dealing with mutual recognition of credentials between the U.S. and the People's Republic of China. She is a frequently invited speaker at conferences both in the U.S. and abroad on matters dealing with education, diversity, technology policy, program evaluation, international educational cooperation, research, etc.