University appoints tech chief

FORT MYERS — Florida Gulf Coast University named John Woolschlager director of the Emergent Technologies Institute.

Woolschlager will lead the continued development of the institute, a newly built 25,000-square-foot facility near Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers with an emphasis on renewable energy and environmental sustainability. As Backe Chair in Renewable Energy, Woolschlager will also serve as a professor of environmental engineering and director of engineering graduate programs when his appointment takes effect Aug. 7. Woolschlager succeeds the inaugural Backe Chair, Joseph Simmons, who is retiring.

Prior to his appointment, Woolschlager was the director of the Center for Sustainability at St. Louis University, which offers sustainability-focused graduate degrees and develops sustainability research. Under his leadership, the center doubled the number of full-time students, developed significant funded research, added faculty positions and created academic programs. Woolschlager joined St. Louis University as the founding Chair of Civil Engineering in 2010 and led that department through its initial accreditation.