Andrew Houck ’00 Named Princeton Engineering Dean

Andrew Houck seated in an engineering laboratory

Incoming dean Andrew Houck ’00 has been a member of Princeton’s engineering faculty since 2008. 

Denise J. Applewhite / Princeton University

Brett Tomlinson
By Brett Tomlinson

Published July 8, 2025

1 min read

Electrical and computer engineering professor Andrew Houck ’00 will lead Princeton’s School of Engineering and Applied Science as its next dean beginning Aug. 1, according to a July 8 University announcement.  

Houck, co-director of the Princeton Quantum Initiative, has been a member of Princeton’s faculty since 2008 and was the valedictorian of his graduating class at the University. He succeeds Dean Andrea Goldsmith, who recently became president of Stony Brook University.  

“I am thrilled that Andrew Houck will be the next dean of Princeton’s School of Engineering and Applied Science,” President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 said in the announcement. “He has excelled at Princeton as a decorated student, beloved teacher, and team-building researcher.  Andrew understands the soul of the school, and he has the exceptional vision and skills required to lead it forward at a time of both turbulence and opportunity.” 

During his time at Princeton, Houck has been honored for his research with awards that include the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the NSF Early Career Award, the Packard Fellowship, and the Sloan Research Fellowship. He also received the engineering school’s Excellence in Teaching award in 2021. He was part of a team of faculty that developed a new first-year course sequence, launched in 2017, to teach math and physics within the context of solving engineering problems. 

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“Andrew Houck is a fantastic scholar, an innovative and devoted educator, and a seasoned leader of interdisciplinary research,” Provost Jennifer Rexford ’91 said in the announcement. “He will be an exceptional dean of engineering at an important time for the school, the University, and our country, and I so look forward to working with him.” 

During Goldsmith’s nearly five years at Princeton, the engineering faculty grew by 29%, Ph.D. enrollment grew by 31%, undergraduate enrollment grew by 22%, and annual sponsored research expenditures grew by 24%, according to the University.  

Houck will oversee the engineering school’s move into expanded facilities as the new Environmental Studies and School of Engineering and Applied Science complex on Ivy Lane opens in advance of the fall semester. The 666,000-square-foot complex includes buildings for chemical and biological engineering and the Omenn-Darling Bioengineering Institute, as well as a new engineering commons. 

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