Stuart R. Bell

Stuart Ray Bell (born 1951) is an American academic. He was named the 29th president of The University of Alabama, located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on July 15, 2015.

Early life

Stuart R. Bell was born in Abilene, Texas in 1951.</ref> He graduated from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Nuclear Engineering in 1979. He received his master's and doctorate degrees in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M in 1981 and 1986, respectively.

Career

A 30-year veteran of higher education, Bell started his career as an assistant senior engineer for Mobil Research and Development Corp. in Dallas. First joining The University of Alabama in 1986 as an assistant professor in the College of Engineering's department of mechanical engineering, Bell was named department head nine years later. With research interest in combustion engines, Bell has expertise in alternative fuels for engines, innovative engine designs and modeling of engine and engine processes. He directed UA's Center for Advanced Vehicle Technologies from 1998–2002. Immediately prior to becoming UA's president, Bell was executive vice president and provost at Louisiana State University. During Bell's tenure there and earlier at the University of Kansas, where he served as dean of its College of Engineering, those institutions opened new facilities, and student recruitment, retention and success were emphasized. Bell was awarded the Society of Automotive Engineers' Ralph Teetor Award for Outstanding Contributions to Research and Teaching in 1988. He was presented the T. Morris Hackney Faculty Leadership Award for the UA College of Engineering in 2001, and, in 2005, he received the Richard S. Woodbury Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Controversy

Stuart Bell has been criticized for his silence in relation to the forced resignation of the Dean of Students, Jamie R. Riley, in the fall of 2019. Dean Riley was one of the few African American senior administrators at The University of Alabama. It has been reported that Dean Riley was asked to leave after a conservative news website published an article about old tweets posted by the Dean in which he described the police and the American flag as fixtures of a “systemic history of racism” in the United States. Bell's silence, on the topic following the resignation - which the University called a "mutual agreement" - brought him under criticism by some students and faculty, including a letter written by the Black Faculty and Staff Association at the University.

Personal life

He is married to Susan Bell. They have two sons, Stuart and Stephen, and a daughter, Stacy.