Robert McMahan became the seventh President of Kettering University, one of the nation’s premier engineering, science, and business universities, and is dedicated to offering a curriculum that deeply integrates classroom learning with experiential and co-operative educational opportunities for all students.
McMahan was one of four presidents highlighted in Susan Pierce’s book Governance Reconsidered in Chapter 8 under “Exemplary Tales: Successful Presidents.”
Before joining Kettering, McMahan was the Founding Dean of and Professor of Engineering in the Western Carolina University College of Engineering and Technology, charged with the creation of an innovative, but replicable, college of engineering model for regional universities centered around the development of a set of project-based, regionally-engaged engineering and technology programs.
McMahan earned dual bachelor’s degrees in Physics and the History of Art from Duke University, a Doctor of Philosophy in Physics from Dartmouth, and completed postdoctoral studies at the Harvard University – Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Center for Astrophysics under the mentorship of MacArthur Fellow Margaret Geller, where he also held an appointment as an Astrophysicist at the Smithsonian Institution. He has completed executive leadership programs at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Harvard Graduate School of Education.