In a letter sent last week to faculty and staff of the Whiting School of Engineering and to Homewood students, Provost Steven Knapp provided an update on the university's search for a new dean for the school.

Knapp, who is chair of the search committee, said that the candidate who had been identified over the summer from a "very strong slate of finalists" had decided that he was unable to leave his current institution at this time.

"While we had all hoped to be in a postion by now to announce the name of the next dean," Knapp wrote, "I am confident that the school's ever-stronger reputation and the efforts of the search committee, which yielded such a strong group of candidates in the first round, will soon result in the appointment of a dean who will lead the school to its next level of excellence."

The position was vacated in June, when Ilene Busch-Vishniac stepped down as dean to resume teaching and devote more time to outside interests. Andrew Douglas, associate dean for academic affairs since 1999, is serving as interim dean.

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