Replaces John S. Tanner, newly called mission president
President Cecil O. Samuelson, following approval from the BYU Board of Trustees, has appointed Brent W. Webb as academic vice president at Brigham Young University. Webb will replace John S. Tanner who was recently called as a mission president for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Webb, whose appointment is effective Feb. 1, 2011, is currently the associate academic vice president of research and graduate studies at BYU. A professor of mechanical engineering at BYU, Webb is the author or co-author of some 200 publications and has lectured extensively both in the United States and abroad. He also served as the executive director of the Office of Research and Creative Activities at BYU from 1996 to 1999.
“Brent is uniformly respected as a scholar, teacher and administrator,” said President Samuelson. “His appointment will not come as a surprise to our campus community. He is a very distinguished scholar, with a remarkable publication record. Additionally, Brent has earned high marks for his excellent teaching. Brent would be welcomed warmly at any fine university in this position.”
In making this announcement, President Samuelson paid tribute to John Tanner and expressed appreciation for his years of service to the university, including more than six years as the academic vice president. “John is a beloved member of our BYU community,” said President Samuelson. “BYU is most appreciative of John’s work, including his many contributions to BYU’s mission statement and the Aims of a BYU Education. He is both courageous and thoughtful, as well as being a fine scholar, teacher and administrator. We are grateful for John’s tireless service, particularly for the many contributions he has made these past years as vice president.”
First and foremost a rigorous and demanding teacher, Webb has shared his enthusiasm for learning with students both in the classroom and laboratory since joining the BYU faculty in 1986. His research in the development of new modeling approaches for predicting spectral radiation heat transfer in high temperature gases has been adopted worldwide.
Webb has served as an associate technical editor of the ASME Journal of Heat Transfer and is currently associate technical editor of the Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer. He has served as a member of the AIAA National Thermophysics Committee, the TC-21 (Modeling) Committee of the International Congress on Glass and on the scientific committee for a number of international symposia. He recently chaired the 6th International Symposium on Radiative Transfer in Antalya, Turkey.
Webb earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from BYU and his doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University.
