Dr. Noureddine Melikechi Named Dean Over Science Disciplines

Dr. Noureddine Melikechi, a 15-year faculty member at Delaware State University, has been named as the dean of the institution’s College of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Technology.

Dr. Melikechi had served as the interim dean of that College since October 2008.

Dr. Melikechi is a native of Algeria where he graduated with a Diplôme d’Etudes Supérieures in Physics from the University of Sciences and Technology of Algiers. He then went on to the University of Sussex in England to pursue graduate work in the area of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics and received a Master of Sciences in 1982 and a Doctorate of Philosophy (D.Phil.) in Physics in 1987. 

Dr. Melikechi joined Delaware State University in 1995 as an assistant professor of physics. He was promoted to associate professor in 1997 and attained full professor status in 2002.

Since his arrival, he has been highly instrumental in the University’s development of optics curriculum and research. In 1998 Dr. Melikechi founded DSU’s Applied Optics Center, and later he was the principal investigator in research proposals through which DSU received two separate $5 million grants – in 2006 and 2009 – for optics research.

As the result of those two grants, Dr. Melikechi founded the Center for Education and Research in Optics Sciences and the Center for Applied Optics for Space Science. These two centers are focused on developing the next generation of optical scientists and on developing new technologies that can be used for the early detection of threats, including cancer, and for space application.

Dr. Melikechi’s impressive research track record will serve him well in his capacity as dean of the College of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Technology, as he will oversee other significant research initiatives that are ongoing in the areas of chemistry, neuroscience, biological sciences, computer science, physics and mathematics.