Distinguished Engineer
Hometown: Fort Belvoir, Arlington
Electrical Engineering,
Lewis F. "Lew" Brown served as the 10th dean of the Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering, retiring June 21, 2018.
He led the college in a wholesale upgrade of the college's facilities. This includes the reconstruction of historic Solberg Hal, upgrade and expansion of Crothers Engineering Hall, the construction of the east and west wings of Daktronics Engineering Hall and Chicoine Architecture, Mathematics and Engineering Hall.
The projects resulted in 213,735 square feet of new construction and improvements to existing buildings at a total cost of $41.3 million.
Also under Brown's tenure, the college saw a remarkable 45% increase in enrollment, growing from SDSU 1,324 in 2001 to 1,918 in 2017. In concert, he built staff strength and inspired more than 150 faculty members.
In his years as dean, the college added 40 new major and minor programs, including six new bachelor's degrees, 10 new master's degrees and six new doctoral degrees. Also, the number of accredited programs in the Lohr College of Engineering more than doubled and Brown oversaw numerous successful accreditation reviews.
Brown joined the faculty in 1992 and served as acting head or head of the Department of Electrical Engineering from 1993 to 2001.
He was honored with the title of professor and dean emeritus upon retirement, which he is spending in Brookings with his wife Danelle.