NEWS
NORMAN, OKLA. – The University of Oklahoma announced today that John Antonio, Ph.D., has been appointed permanent dean of the Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy, effective July 1, pending OU Board of Regents’ approval. Antonio has served as interim dean since 2023.
“John Antonio is an outstanding choice to lead our Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy,” said OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. “His consistent record of fostering excellence, broad technical expertise, leadership acumen, and commitment to collaboration with campus and external stakeholders will continue to be an invaluable asset to the college, the university at large and, above all, our students.”
A signature achievement of Antonio’s tenure as interim dean has been the development of the Sustainable Energy Systems Certificate program, beginning this upcoming fall semester. To date, OU has received over $1.5 million to launch this initiative — including $500,000 in funding from Mewbourne Oil Co. — which will offer students across the University the opportunity to broaden their education with a multidisciplinary approach to sustainable energy. Antonio has positioned the college to help lead the charge in addressing the growing needs of the energy industry, which he believes needs to be met by professionals from all backgrounds.
“Dr. Antonio’s name is synonymous with leadership, innovation and research, and his vision and commitment will continue to advance the national prominence of Mewbourne College and nurture the educational journey of our students,” said OU Senior Vice President and Provost André-Denis G. Wright.
Under his leadership, enrollment in the college increased by nearly 10% after eight consecutive years of decline. Fall 2024 enrollment for Mewbourne College is projected to increase by as much as 15%. External research awards hit a record-breaking number for the college, with $10 million awarded in fiscal year 2023 and a projected number of over $12 million in fiscal year 2024.
Antonio has a long history of programmatic leadership at OU. Prior to being named interim dean, he served as a Senior Associate Vice President for Research and Partnerships, and he has also served as the interim dean and a senior associate dean of Gallogly College of Engineering. He has been a professor in the School of Computer Science since joining the university and served as its head from 1999 to 2006. As director, he oversaw a 50% increase in Computer Science faculty and tripled the school’s research expenditures. Antonio has a research grant portfolio exceeding $20 million, including research funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Navy Research and Development, the National Science Foundation as well as many corporate sponsors.
Outside of academia, Antonio was the executive director of application development at MSCI Inc., where he led a global team in optimizing the company’s parallel production computing platform. Prior to his time at OU, he was an associate professor and acting chair of the Department of Computer Science at Texas Tech University, an assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University and a lecturer at the Department of Electrical Engineering at Texas A&M University.
Antonio is an elected member of the European Academy of Sciences, a senior member of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a member of the Association for Computing Machinery. His abilities in the classroom have been recognized by numerous awards across multiple institutions, including the Lockheed Martin Award for Excellence in Engineering Teaching at Texas Tech University and the Ruth and Joel Spira Outstanding Teacher Award at Purdue University. He also holds two patents.
Antonio earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University.
About the University of Oklahoma
Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. OU was named the state’s highest-ranking university in U.S. News & World Report’s most recent Best Colleges list. For more information about the university, visit ou.edu.
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