Following a national search, Jane Chumley Ammons has been named the chair of the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, effective July 1.

Ammons is the first woman to be named a school chair in Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering. She was also the first woman to receive a Ph.D. from the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) in 1982 and the first woman faculty member in the school.

“Dr. Ammons brings with her a superb track record as a researcher, advisor, and recognized leader in the field of industrial engineering. She brings with her a vision to lead the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering to higher levels of excellence within a multidisciplinary and high-technology environment,” said Don P. Giddens, dean of the College of Engineering. “Dr. Ammons is a well-rounded educator and administrator, and we look forward to the development of new curriculum, service and research endeavors.”

Ammons currently holds the rank of professor and also has served as associate dean for faculty affairs in the College of Engineering since 2004. She is the author or co-author of more than 100 refereed and technical publications in the area of manufacturing systems and supply chain engineering with a special interest in developing closed-loop, environmentally sustainable systems. Ammons has served in several school, college and Institute capacities, including as the National Science Foundation ADVANCE professor of engineering from 2002 to 2005. She has been principal or co-principal investigator on a variety of sponsored research programs, having enjoyed support from both industry and federal funding agencies.

In addition to her research and institutional service activities, Ammons has been highly active in professional service external to Georgia Tech. Ammons is a past president of the Institute of Industrial Engineers and has chaired the National Science Foundation Engineering Advisory Committee. She is a member of the Technical Committee for the Uganda: Millennium Science Initiative Project, co-financed by the World Bank, and serves as a program evaluator for ABET, Inc., the engineering education accreditation organization.

At Georgia Tech, Ammons has been honored with eight teaching/faculty awards at the school and university levels. In addition to her academic experience, Ammons has worked as a plant engineer for an industrial manufacturer and is a registered professional engineer in the state of Georgia.

The H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering is the largest academic program of its kind in the world with a strong foundation in optimization, stochastics, simulation and statistics. With the recent release of the 2012 U.S. News & World Report, ISyE again was ranked as the No. 1 graduate program of its kind, making this the 21st consecutive number one ranking.