Troy, N.Y.-Troy resident Donald Drew has been appointed chair of the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His appointment begins July 1.

Drew, the Eliza Ricketts Professor of Applied Mathematics for the past eight years, has been a Rensselaer faculty member for nearly 30 years. He earned his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in mathematics from Rensselaer. In between his long tenure at the Institute, Drew conducted postdoctoral research at MIT, and taught for two years at New York University.

Drew's new appointment as chair comes at a time of promising growth in the Mathematical Sciences Department.

This year, Rensselaer's doctoral program in applied mathematics was ranked No. 21 in the country by U.S. News & World Report. The Institute tied with Harvard, Rutgers, Arizona, Colorado at Boulder, and SUNY at Stony Brook.

"My goal is to keep on going in the same direction and to continue to raise the department's visibility," says Drew, who also will retain his professorship.

Part of that goal will be to fill several academic positions in the near future that will complement the current strengths in applied math. Those strengths include unique applications in several engineering and science disciplines, including biotechnology and environmental science.