September 20, 2002: Volume 56, Number 2

Doug Klein: converging technologies a 'college-wide initiative'

Think of Doug Klein as the guy who holds the college-wide umbrella.

Klein, professor of economics and associate dean of information technology, was recently named director of the newly-formed Center for Converging Technologies.

"I view myself as a facilitator and champion for CT (Converging Technologies), which is also the role I have played for IT (Information Technology) on campus for the past few years," he said.

Klein said he envisions the Center as an "umbrella" under which the College can grow new interdisciplinary programs, sponsor speakers and workshops, encourage new interdisciplinary GenEd science courses and introduce CT content into existing ones, and generate funding for these new initiatives that bridge the liberal arts and engineering. Klein said the Center also will explore partnerships in CT between Union and other institutions – public, private and governmental.

"While the idea for CT emerged a little over a year ago from Division 4 (engineering), the initiative I have agreed to lead is clearly college-wide," Klein said at a recent CT planning retreat for faculty and administrators. "In fact, the idea of CT emerged in response to the challenge to develop interdisciplinary projects and programs which promote a broader conversation between engineering and the liberal arts."

"CT is the best way I can think of to open the lines of communication across campus and to fully capitalize on our resources. CT will also encourage the College to develop an administrative structure that provides the increased flexibility necessary to foster these interdisciplinary activities."

"Interdisciplinary studies such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, mechatronics and pervasive computing are becoming more important in understanding the world," he said. "Union has for more than 150 years prided itself in being a liberal arts college with engineering, and rightfully so. Our mission speaks of the value of receiving an engineering education within the context of the liberal arts, and I think that the converse is true as well.

"CT will distinguish Union in ways that simply having engineering programs has not.  It is one thing to be a liberal arts college with engineering.  It is something else completely to be a small college that allows students to see the world in these fundamentally new ways by participating in interdisciplinary programs. These programs will draw on our knowledge and talent in both engineering and the liberal arts."

J. Douglass Klein received his bachelor's in mathematics from Grinnell College, and his master's and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Prior to joining the economics department in 1979, he taught at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University and served as a Brookings Institution Economic Policy Fellow.

At Union, Klein served as chair of economics from 1993 to 1998, and was appointed associate dean for information technology in 1999, a position he still holds. He has also served as chair of the College's steering committee on academic computing, and directed the Social Sciences Statistics Laboratory. 

Klein has published in the areas of antitrust and regulatory economics, the economics of auctions, and applications of efficiency measurement.

For more information, visit the CT website, at http://www.ct.union.edu

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