Dean's Message

I am honored to introduce Structural Engineering Professor Gilberto Mosqueda as the inaugural Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering as of July 1, 2022.

Professor Mosqueda is a highly accomplished and creative structural engineering researcher, educator, and administrator. He has served admirably as the Jacobs School's Faculty Equity Advisor since July 1, 2021. As Faculty Equity Advisor, Professor Mosqueda has worked with all six Jacobs School departments to ensure that equity and inclusion are considered in the recruitment, retention and promotion of faculty.

I'm thrilled that Professor Mosqueda will now take on an expanded role as Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion here at the Jacobs School. In this broader capacity, Professor Mosqueda will continue the critical work of Faculty Equity Advisor. In addition, he will work closely with me, with the other Associate and Assistant Deans at the Jacobs School, and with the entire Jacobs School community to cultivate ever more welcoming, diverse, equitable, and inclusive learning, teaching, researching and working environments in which all our students, faculty, and staff can thrive.

Professor Mosqueda is uniquely qualified for this important role. In many different contexts and capacities, he has demonstrated commitment to issues of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion while improving experiences for the entire Jacobs School community.

At the undergraduate level, he participates extensively in student recruitment activities for the Jacobs School. One of his current focus areas is student retention and graduate school readiness. As a member of the UC San Diego Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) Task Force, Professor Mosqueda works with faculty and staff from across campus to address the needs of ChicanX/LatinX students at UC San Diego while creating environments where all students reach their highest potential. At the UC level, Professor Mosqueda is one of two representatives from UC San Diego on the UC President's Chicano/Latino Advisory Panel.

In terms of K-12 outreach, Professor Mosqueda devotes significant efforts towards activities that aim to broaden participation and increase the diversity of the campus, particularly for underrepresented students in engineering. For example, he has organized and formed partnerships with K-12 schools from underserved communities in San Diego in order to provide students access to hands-on activities that allow them to discover the roles that engineering technologies play in making buildings safer and more resilient in the face of earthquakes.

Professor Mosqueda’s primary research interests are in the experimental evaluation of large-scale structural and nonstructural components under seismic and other extreme loads. Research projects include testing large-scale structural systems from the onset of damage through collapse using hybrid simulation and the development and verification of numerical tools to simulate structural response. His team's research involves testing structural components of buildings on earthquake simulators. Research also involves developing new laboratory capabilities for testing nonstructural components and medical equipment under more realistic loads including larger accelerations experienced in upper stories of buildings.

In closing, Professor Mosqueda is a talented and creative researcher, educator and administrator; and I look forward to working with him in this new capacity as Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

As always, I can be reached at DeanPisano@eng.ucsd.edu.

Sincerely, 
Al

Albert ("Al") P. Pisano, Dean
UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering