New Chair Appointed for DLH Department of Engineering

Dr. Rasit Koc As the chair, Koc will oversee the faculty, course delivery, curriculum development and maintaining of accreditation standards for ASU’s Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering (B.C.S.E.) and Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (B.C.M.E.) degree programs. He will also serve as a professor of engineering. He replaces Dr. William Kitch, the founding chair of the department, who is stepping down after 10 years to a full-time faculty role.

Dr. William Kitch
“I’m very excited about having Dr. Koc take over the reins of the David L. Hirschfeld Department of Engineering,” Kitch said. “He comes to us with over 30 years of experience in materials engineering, and he has a strong track record of growing the engineering program at SIUC. We feel he’s the right person to continue the growth of Angelo State engineering and also expand into new areas, such a robotics and electrical engineering.”

Also a professor of engineering at SIUC, Koc specializes in materials for fuel cells, thermal batteries and sensors, as well as the processing of advanced ceramic materials for structural and electronic applications. He developed new engineering master’s and doctoral degree programs at SIUC, has authored or co-authored over 100 research papers, and owns three U.S. patents. He has also generated over $5.6 million in external grants to fund his research, and he has industry experience as a senior ceramic engineer at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado.

Additionally, Koc is associate editor of the Journal of American Ceramic Society, an editorial board member for the Journal of Boron, and a manuscript reviewer for the Journal of Materials Science, Carbon International Journal and Materials Science and Engineering. He is also a proposal reviewer for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Division of Materials Sciences.

Koc earned his Bachelor of Science degree in metallurgical and materials engineering from Istanbul Technical University and his Master of Science and Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the Missouri University of Science and Technology.