Yannis C. Yortsos, was appointed Dean of the Viterbi School of Engineering in 2005. He is the Chester F. Dolley Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, and holds the Zohrab A. Kaprielian Dean’s Chair in Engineering.

Yortsos is well known for his work on fluid flow, transport and reaction processes in porous and fractured media with applications to the recovery of subsurface fluids and soil remediation. He also has been actively involved in the peer review of the Yucca Mountain Project for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste.

Under Dean Yortsos’ leadership, the Viterbi School has risen to 10th worldwide for engineering, computer science and technology (2010 Shanghai Jiao Tong rankings). The distinction follows a substantial increase in size, quality and diversity of the school’s faculty roster and its undergraduate, graduate and Ph.D. student body; with greater retention and graduation rates; with a growing number of major national and international faculty awards; and with a thriving research program, including six national research centers and total multi-year, multi-school funding of more than $160M. Yortsos spearheaded the creation of a new Office of Master’s and Professional Programs at the school to enhance the program and respond to the critical needs of professional engineers based in the U.S. and abroad.

Yortsos coined the term Engineering+, a concept promoting interdisciplinary research, programs and faculty appointments that enable engineering’s powerful role in innovations in the sciences and the professions. He has led the establishment of new programs across curricula to enhance engineering education. Along with his counterparts at Duke University and Olin College, he promoted the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges of Engineering, co-hosting the first NAE Grand Challenges Summit at Duke University in Spring 2009, and the second annual summit at USC in Fall 2010 (http://naegrandchallengessummit2010.org/). The first meeting spawned the Grand Challenges Scholars Program for undergraduate engineering schools across the nation.

To expand ties with top institutions overseas, Yortsos created the Office for Strategic Initiatives, which led to a strong global presence and the opening of new VSoE offices in Bangalore and Shanghai.

The recipient of many honors for research, teaching and service, Dean Yortsos is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, and a Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences.

Yortsos received his B.Sc. from the National Technical University, Athens, Greece, and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology, all in chemical engineering. An invited scholar at several institutions in the United States and abroad, he joined the faculty of USC in 1979.