Chancellor Randy Woodson has appointed Professor John Gilligan as a Distinguished University Professor on September 19, 2016. To qualify for this honor, the Distinguished candidate “must be an outstanding faculty member or potential faculty member who has achieved recognition well above the criteria for full professor and be considered one of the best scholars in the discipline. Named Distinguished Faculty Chairs and Distinguished Professors will be known and respected nationally and internationally by scholars in their field.” In addition, for the Distinguished University title, “The candidate will have attained all the criteria for a Distinguished Professor and, in addition, have improved the quality of NC State and served its mission through service and involvement in the campus community.”
Dr. Gilligan earned his B.S. in Engineering Sciences Engineering from Purdue University and his M.N.E and Ph.D. degrees in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
Dr. Gilligan has taught a wide range of courses including introductory nuclear engineering, nuclear reactor theory, reactor heat transfer, thermodynamics, reactor systems, plasma physics and nuclear fusion, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Professor Gilligan has authored over 115 peer reviewed publications in areas such as high power density plasmas and launchers, plasma-material interactions, nuclear systems, nuclear fusion, computational transport methods and engineering education. Dr. Gilligan has edited and published the Nuclear Science and Engineering Education Sourcebook since 1986 on behalf of the American Nuclear Society and the US DOE, and has served on a number of external Boards of Directors including the American Society for Engineering Education, UT-Battelle (Oak Ridge National Lab), Battelle Energy Associates (Idaho National Lab), the National Institute for Aerospace (NIA), and the Research Triangle Institute-International (RTI). He was also the founding Education Director for the US-DOE Nuclear Modeling and Simulation Hub for the Design of Light Water Reactors (CASL).
Dr. Gilligan has served on the faculty at the University of Illinois-UC, and held research positions at Princeton University and Argonne National Laboratory. Dr. Gilligan has held leadership posts in the American Nuclear Society and the American Society of Engineering Education. He has been awarded the Alcoa Foundation Engineering Research Achievement Award and has numerous invited lectures at universities and conferences to his credit.
Dr. Gilligan currently serves as the Executive Associate Dean for the College of Engineering (Chief Operating Officer for the College). Dr. Gilligan also serves as the founding and current Director of the Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP) Integration Office for the US Department of Energy since 2008. The NEUP competitively awards contracts to universities to conduct research in support of the development of commercial nuclear energy. In the most recent year, awards were made at the level of about $70M to over 50 universities and included faculty research grants, equipment grants, university nuclear reactors support and scholarships and fellowships for students.
Dr. Gilligan is the former University Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies at NC State University. Previously Dr. Gilligan had served at the Dean level in the 10,000 student NCSU College of Engineering and also as NCSU Interim University Vice Chancellor for Extension and Engagement.