A leading professor from the United States was appointed dean of the just-established industrial engineering department of China's prestigious Tsinghua University Thursday.

Prof Salvendy, an academician of the American Academy of Engineering, is internationally renowned for his outstanding achievements in the study of engineering.

According to the contract, Salvendy will stay in Tsinghua for more than four months every year and he is also invited to lecture Tsinghua students. He will receive an annual salary of US$100,000.

Salvendy is confident that Tsinghua's industrial engineering department can be developed into one of the best engineering schools worldwide within ten years.

This is the first time Tsinghua has given a dean-level position to a foreign scholar since 1949.

(People’s Daily 10/12/2001)