Dean of Engineering and Applied Science Andrea Goldsmith will leave Princeton in August for the presidency of Stony Brook University, one of the country’s top public universities with a reputation for educating low-income and first generation students.
Goldsmith, who is also a professor of electrical engineering, came to Princeton in the fall of 2020. She didn’t step foot in her physical office for nearly a year due to the pandemic. Over the past five years, she has presided over an engineering school transformed — a new bioengineering school, research initiatives in AI and robotics, and a sprawling new building complex that has been constructed throughout her tenure.
But Goldsmith describes her main love as connection to the students on campus, which she hopes to maintain in her new role as president of the flagship public university in New York, with an undergraduate student body more than triple that of Princeton. In a conversation with The Daily Princetonian, Goldsmith reflected on her tenure, her views on leadership, and the road to come.
what's her research?
The Daily Princetonian spoke with Goldsmith to hear her reflections on her time at Princeton, her views on leadership, the legacy she hopes to leave behind at Princeton, and the ideals she hopes to bring with her into her next leadership role.
Daily Princetonian: What do you find unique about working at Princeton?
Andrea Goldsmith: The residential life here is unlike any other. So much of the education of a young person happens through their broader experiences and their interactions with their peers, faculty, all people. Our residential life program is truly unique. When I was at Stanford, we looked at Princeton as the gold standard of residential life.
The fact that our informal motto is that everything that we do, whether it’s engineering or any major here, is steeped in the tradition and notion that we are becoming educated to benefit the nation, the world, and all humanity — I think that really infuses the way we think about how we educate our students and how our students think about their education.
The fact that every student here does a senior thesis is very special. Our faculty care so deeply about teaching. This is [the fourth university that I have worked at]. I’ve never seen faculty as dedicated to teaching, education, and mentoring. I’ve never seen the collective notion that this is so much a part of what we do.
The fact that our engineering students are educated in a liberal arts context, and our engineering courses are taken by students all over campus to understand how technology can be used for good.
DP: What has been your favorite part about mentoring students at Princeton?
AG: What’s been most difficult for me about being Dean of Engineering is interacting less with students than I did when I was just a faculty member. Of the awards that I’ve won, the ones that I’m most proud of are for education and mentoring, because that’s really paying it forward to the next generation. I haven’t taught since I’ve been at Princeton — it’s just been too difficult to carve out the time, and I miss being in the classroom. I miss the relationships that you build with the students inside and outside your class.
I love talking to young people and telling them my life story in the hope that it might inspire them to be incredibly aspirational. More importantly, [I love] hearing their life story and helping them understand what their aspirations might be.
I have open office hours. Anybody can make an appointment to come talk to me, and I’ve had conversations with many Princeton students, from freshmen to seniors and graduate students. Those conversations are just trying to understand the aspirations, challenges, vision, the lifetime and short-term goals that these students have, and [helping] them navigate whatever challenge they’re facing. All of those conversations give me a lot of joy, because I feel like I’m helping a young person make a decision that may have a big impact on their life going forward. Those have been my most joyous interactions with students here.
My view is, at the end of my leadership journey, I very much hope to return to research and teaching, and then I'll get those student experiences at the same depth and quantity as I had in the past.
DP: Do you anticipate having time for student interactions while being president at Stony Brook? Do you hope to ingrain that into your schedule?
AG: I hope to have the same kind of office hour policy where any student can come and meet and talk with me.
The students there are different from Princeton students. Most of them are first-generation students and low-income students. They’re very motivated and aspirational. They’re very grateful for the opportunity to get a great education at $7,000-a-year tuition for in-state students. I’m very excited to meet the students at Stony Brook and be their president, supporter, mentor, and cheerleader as they go on these upwardly mobile paths.
DP: How do you feel you’ve been able to foster innovation in both research and education?
AG: Part of our strategic plan was: How do we increase our impact by getting our research ideas out of our labs and into practice? We launched the [Design for Impact] initiative — that’s not just about technology, it can be ideas in sociology or the policy school. Universities are often ivory towers where people don’t think about getting their ideas into the real world. In engineering, we’re closer to industry and practice, but I would say Princeton engineering was more theoretical and less connected to the outside world when I got here than it is now.
When I think about innovation of the research here, it’s [about] thinking more broadly. What are the interdisciplinary areas that we’re not doing that we should be doing, like bioengineering? It’s connecting what we do more closely to real world impact, so that we can learn from the real world. Even if the impact isn’t going to be felt for decades, we want to do big, bold research.
The process of understanding the impact of what we do on the real world whenever it happens informs our research. That’s what happened to me in both my startups. After I did the startups and I came back to [academia] to do research, my research changed because I realized there’s this whole set of problems that I’ve never thought about. If we could solve those problems as academics, it would really have a lot of impact in the real world.
On the education side, there’s a lot of innovation in education that we do in the School of Engineering. We have the Keller Center on innovation, as well as first-year classes that teach math and physics from an engineering lens. These classes attract a broader set of students, including students from under-resourced high schools and first-gen and female students, because they motivate the students to think about engineering differently. That’s one of the most innovative sets of classes that we’ve developed.
I love that we’ve launched a number of new minors. We’ve launched three new graduate programs since I’ve been dean, one in bioengineering, one in quantum science and engineering, and the third one in materials science. These are really going to put Princeton on the map in these areas, for graduate students, but also for undergraduate students. We hope to have a bioengineering major sometime in the next few years. That’s part of the innovation. You’re not just focused on a narrow topic, but on topics that can impact students in every single discipline.
DP: You’ve made career transitions before. What worries you about them and how do you approach that?
AG: All of my transitions have been to places that were very, very different from where I’d been before. Often, especially for students, they’ll look at an old person like me, or someone who’s at a level of a Dean of Engineering and now becoming a president, and they think, “You’ve had this all figured out from the very beginning, right?” The truth is, I’ve never had any of it planned out, particularly with respect to leadership. It was about opportunities that presented themselves that seemed really compelling.
When I was at Stanford, I wasn’t thinking about becoming a dean of engineering. I certainly wasn’t thinking about moving to Princeton or an Ivy League school. It was the opportunity that presented itself to me to become Princeton Dean of Engineering at a time when the University was going to invest significantly in engineering, and I could help shape what that investment would be and what we would accomplish. That’s what brought me here. The same is true of Stony Brook.
Anytime you leave your comfort zone, you’re taking a risk. You don’t know if you’re going to be successful, you don’t know what challenges you’re going to encounter, or what people you’re going to encounter. But it’s exhilarating too, because you grow as a person, you grow as a leader, and that’s true at any stage of your career.
That’s really what energizes me about these changes. I would not leave Princeton engineering deanship unless I saw an opportunity where I could have more impact and challenge myself and grow in dimensions as a professional and as a person.
I think it’s important to be open to change and open to opportunities, but also be selective about them. I’ve gotten the question a lot since the announcement: Why would you want to be a university president right now? It’s such a challenging time for university presidents. My response to that is that it is such an important time for university presidents to be able to articulate the value of education and research and service. If I can make a difference in articulating that in this university role, that’s calling me. We need people that have the ability to step into those roles at the most difficult times, to persevere with the things that we care
DP: How do you hope your leadership will be remembered at Princeton?
AG: My memories from here are so special. We have an amazing set of faculty, staff, and students. Working with those people every day, [seeing] their passion about our mission of education, research, and service, I’ve learned so much from the people here, and I take all of that away with me to Stony Brook.
What I hope I’ll be remembered for as the Dean of Engineering these last five years is the bold vision that we created together and executed. There’s been tremendous growth in the School of Engineering, not just to faculty and graduate and undergraduate students, but new initiatives. We have a new institute for bioengineering. We have a Princeton robotics initiative. We are doing things in blockchain and wireless, things that didn’t exist when I came. Part of it is the increased momentum towards impact and excellence that I believe will continue long after my departure.
We’ve put in place excellent leaders across the school that I think will continue to be bold and visionary in what the School of Engineering should accomplish. At the highest level, I would hope that I had some impact on making the School of Engineering more bold and aspirational than it was when I got here.
I think that Princeton engineering can be one of the greatest, most impactful schools of engineering in the country in its own unique way. I hope that the bold aspirations of the school to increase their excellence and impact along those lines will continue long after I leave.
Rachel Bejo is a contributing Features writer for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
Read More
Women’s ice hockey names Courtney Kessel as new head coach
Lily PampolinaFollowing the resignation of Cara Gardner Morey, Princeton appointed Courtney Kessel as head coach.
Following the resignation of Cara Gardner Morey, Princeton appointed Courtney Kessel as head coach.
Former women’s basketball forward Parker Hill ’25 signs professional contract in Switzerland
Doug SchwartzAfter a successful senior season, women's basketball forward Parker Hill signed a contact to play professional basketball in Europe, following in the steps of her past teammates.
After a successful senior season, women's basketball forward Parker Hill signed a contact to play professional basketball in Europe, following in the steps of her past teammates.
David Zielenziger ’74, former ‘Prince’ chairman and lifelong journalist, passes away at 72
Kian PetlinFriends and colleagues remember former ‘Prince’ chairman David Zielenziger ’74, who passed away peacefully on May 20.
Friends and colleagues remember former ‘Prince’ chairman David Zielenziger ’74 who passed away peacefully on May 20.