The Graduate School of Engineering and Management at the Air Force Institute of Technology has welcomed a new head to its Department of Systems and Engineering Management. Dr. Adedeji B. Badiru joined the faculty on 2 Oct 2006.

A naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Nigeria, Badiru comes to AFIT from the University of Tennessee, where he had served as Professor in and Head of the Department of Industrial and Information Engineering since 2000. Prior to that, he was at the University of Oklahoma’s School of Industrial Engineering, where he started as an assistant professor in 1985. He served as Dean there from 1995 to 2000.

Badiru, who earned his PhD in Industrial Engineering from the University of Central Florida in 1984, conducts research in the areas of project management, expert systems, economic analysis, industrial development projects, quality and productivity improvements, and computer applications.

Badiru started teaching as soon as he earned his bachelor’s degree—with distinction—in Industrial Engineering from Tennessee Technological University in 1979. He stayed at Tennessee Tech for the next several years, serving as a teaching assistant while he worked on his master’s degree in Mathematics (1981) and as a graduate instructor while he worked on his master’s degree in Industrial Engineering (1982). He then served as a teaching associate while he pursued his doctorate at the University of Central Florida. Badiru has taught courses in advanced engineering economic analysis, expert systems, microcomputer applications, engineering economy, probability and statistics, experimental design, occupational safety and health, engineering project management, linear algebra, computer systems, calculus, engineering graphics, matrix theory and applications, and computer simulation.

Says Dr. Mark Goltz, Professor of Engineering and Environmental Management, “The Department of Systems and Engineering Management is unique, in that the department faculty has an extremely broad range of interests and expertise. Dr. Badiru, with his equally broad background, is singularly qualified to lead the department. In today’s world, problems need to be solved with a multi-disciplinary approach. Dr. Badiru brings such an approach to the department, and the department's faculty and staff have eagerly been anticipating working with him to deal with the challenges we'll face in the coming years.”

Indeed, Maj. Sharon Heilmann, Assistant Professor of Management, says, “We have a great department! And Dr. Badiru will build on our strengths, guiding us to another level.” Charles Bleckmann, Associate Professor of Engineering and Environmental Management, agrees. “Dr. Badiru will be one of the few faculty members with experience at several schools and can provide truly unique perspectives,” he says.

Despite his professional renown, Dr. Badiru is more than an academic. In addition to being an accomplished scholar and administrator, he spends his time reading, painting, doing arts and crafts, writing poetry, drawing cartoons, conducting food science experiments, and dancing.