Dr. Sheryl Ehrman

Dr. Sheryl H. Ehrman has been appointed as dean of SJSU’s Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering, effective July 3.

Ehrman joins San Jose State University from the University of Maryland, College Park where she has served as Keystone professor and chair of the Department of Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering since 2010. She has worked at the university since 1998 as a faculty member. As chair, she oversaw an expansion of tenure-track faculty, development of two new BS/MS programs, the growth of the transfer student pathway, initiation of a multidisciplinary research center for advanced battery technology, and development and implementation of strategies to engage alumni and industrial partners.

She received a bachelor’s in chemical engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara and went on to complete a doctoral degree in chemical engineering in the major field of aerosol science and technology and the minor field of atmospheric science at UCLA. She is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Maryland.

Ehrman served as a visiting scientist with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, in Maryland and as a National Science Foundation-sponsored post-doctoral fellow at the Paul. Scherrer Institute, in Switzerland. In 2006, she was named a Fulbright Scholar and visiting associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, where she engaged with students and faculty in the Department of Chemical Engineering. She served as a Fulbright Alumni Ambassador from 2013-16.

During the search process, Ehrman expressed a passion for research, a proven ability to create industry partnerships and an aspiration to foster a diversity of ideas. Most importantly she possesses the skills to build student engagement and support student success at SJSU.