William M. Brown ‘84 ME ‘87 MSME recently made a $2.5 million donation for the College of Engineering to establish an Endowed Chair within the Mechanical Engineering program. Sylvie Lorente, Ph.D. will serve as the inaugural chair of the program. Brown, who serves as the CEO of 3M, attended Villanova both for his undergraduate and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering. 

As the College prepares to open the doors to the new Drosdick Hall this upcoming fall, the engineering programs at Villanova are working toward ensuring and instituting a new strategic plan, which will aim to cultivate expanded global research, academics and help solve complex global challenges. 

Brown hopes that his donation will help Villanova engineering students have access to advanced research and academic opportunities.

“The experiences I had at Villanova gave me a deep understanding of technology and engineering, as well as problem solving, collaboration and leadership that I’ve relied on throughout my career,” Brown said in a letter to The Villanovan. “That’s part of why I am honored to continue supporting the Villanova University College of Engineering’s important work inspiring and supporting future generations of leaders, thinkers and innovators.”

Brown is a long-time supporter of the College and helped to start the Innovate Summer Program when he served as CEO of L3Harris Technologies. In this program, Villanova’s engineering undergraduate students work together to complete, design and build functional prototypes, while also gaining leadership and engineering skills over the course of two months. 

Lorente was first hired by the University in 2019 as the College of Engineering Chair Professor in Mechanical Engineering. She also currently holds the role of Associate Dean for Research and Innovation.

Lorente’s research and work are in the fields of architectures of heat, mass and fluid that morph towards better efficiency. She works alongside a group that aims to explore and discover the underlying biological and engineered hierarchical flow paths which endow complex systems with efficient properties and behaviors. She also recently worked to apply flow architectures in medical science, helping surgeons working in transplants to develop models which predict blood flow through the liver. 

In addition to her research, Lorente has written seven books, 10 book chapters and more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, pushing her into the 2% most cited scientists worldwide. In 2022, she was appointed to serve on the governing body of the European Research Council by the European Commision, following her 2019 election to the Academia Europaea, elected alongside 80 Nobel laureates. 

“I look forward to seeing Dr. Sylvie Lorente continue that work through the endowed chair in mechanical engineering,” Brown said. “And witnessing what the next generation of leaders will accomplish.”