Jane Ammons, who has served as the school chair of the Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering for the past two and a half years, will be retiring at the end of the current academic school year.

“Under Jane's leadership, ISyE has continued to be the preeminent industrial and systems engineering program in the country,” said Gary S. May, Dean of the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech. “In her career, Jane achieved many milestones including being the first woman chair of an engineering school at Tech. We are all grateful for what she has done during her tenure as both a school chair and as a College of Engineering associate dean. Her energy, leadership, and hard work on behalf of ISyE will be missed at Tech.”

During her time as school chair, ISyE increased the size of the faculty by almost 20 percent by adding nine new faculty members, with plans to hire more outstanding faculty colleagues during before the end of the academic year. To improve the quality of experience for ISyE’s students, Ammons filled three new positions including a director of student services, an Edenfield Executive-in-Residence, and a professor of the practice. Also, ISyE has ramped up its international professional master’s degree in supply chain engineering program and initiated a second professional master’s program, this time in analytics. 

Because competition has increased, and the traditional revenue streams are drying up, Ammons has been extremely active in fundraising, working tirelessly to help ISyE achieve its $60M goal. ISyE officially reached its Capital Campaign goal in December 2013 and was the first engineering school to reach its goal.

In addition, ISyE has accomplished major facilities upgrade to the School including the construction of a bridge to connect the two buildings for better flow and access and the creation of the ISyE Studio, which was established to provide students with a workspace to practice presentations, collaborate with other students, and obtain tutorial assistance.

Before joining ISyE as school chair, Ammons previously served as associate dean for faculty affairs in the College of Engineering and before that held the rank of professor at ISyE. 

During her time at Georgia Tech, she has experienced a lot of firsts. She is the first female chair of ISyE as well as the first woman to be named a chair of a school in Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering.  Also, Ammons was the first female to graduate with a Ph.D. (1982) from ISyE, as well as the school’s first female faculty member.

At Georgia Tech, she has been honored with eight teaching/faculty awards at the school and university levels including the WORMS Award for the Advancement of Women in OR/MS (2005), “Spirit of Georgia Tech” Professor (2001), MERITOR Faculty Excellence Award (1999), and the WRC’s Woman of Distinction Award (2003), among many others.

She has authored or co-authored more than 100 refereed and technical publications in the area of manufacturing systems and supply chain engineering in her career. She has a particular interest and expertise in developing closed-loop, environmentally sustainable systems.

Ammons served as an advisor for the Tau Beta Pi student chapter for 24 years. She continues to be engaged in activities to enhance the development of Georgia Tech students and faculty, including women and under-represented groups. At Georgia Tech she served as the NSF ADVANCE Professor of Engineering from 2002-2006 working to advance the career success of women engineering faculty.

Ammons has served as the President of the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE). She has been a member of the Technical Committee for the Uganda: Millennium Science Initiative (MSI) Project co-financed by the World Bank. She serves as a Program Evaluator for ABET, the engineering education accreditation organization.

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.

“Georgia Tech and ISyE have been an important part of my academic life, and it has been a pleasure to serve as school chair and work with ISyE’s renowned alumni, faculty, students, staff, peers, and community to strengthen and influence what our students do today and in the future.” said Ammons.  “I know ISyE will continue to move forward with even higher levels of impact and success.”