UC Berkeley engineering dean dies of cancer

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jan 4, 2007 | by Kristin Bender

Professor A. Richard Newton, the dean of the College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, died at UC San Francisco Medical Center on Tuesday after a short battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 55.

Mr. Newton, who came to UC Berkeley from Melbourne, Australia, as a graduate student in 1975 and never left. He was the dean of the College of Engineering since 2000. He also his doctorate at UC Berkeley.

Mr. Newton was the driving force behind establishing the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society, or CITRIS, at UC Berkeley in 2001.

The center worked to use the best new technologies to find solutions to societal problems -- health care, transportation, energy use -- facing California, the nation and world, colleagues said.

"Rich Newton was a man of incomparable vision," UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau stated.

"Dynamic and entrepreneurial, he understood the power of engineering and technology in entirely new ways, and he connected it to addressing society's toughest problems."

Birgeneau said the vibrancy of Mr. Newton's thinking shaped his own ideas about what engineering is and what it can be.

"This is an enormous loss for us at UC Berkeley, for California, and indeed for the international engineering community," Birgeneau said.

Those who knew Mr. Newton said he was a tireless advocate for the use of information technology to tackle problems in developing nations.

In founding CITRIS, Mr. Newton believed getting inexpensive cell phones and computers to farmers and laborers in Third World countries could help with everything from commerce to health care to government participation, colleagues said.

"He was able to not just think about technology, but its role in bettering societal systems," said Shankar Sastry, the director of CITRIS.

At UC Berkeley, Mr. Newton was also at the forefront of advocating for the use of synthetic biology to make fuel and drugs for malaria and AIDS in developing nations.

"He was tremendous and had an incredibly positive energy and was a true visionary," said Jay Keasling, a professor of chemical engineering and bio-engineering.

Keasling said Mr. Newton had the rare ability to explain his ideas not only to scientists and engineers, but to those outside the fields as well.

"He was totally devoted to the good of the people and social causes," Keasling said.

Services are pending.