Mike Lovell, who served as William K. Whiteford Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the Swanson School of Engineering and associate dean for research near the beginning of an academic career that culminated in the presidency of Marquette University, died June 9, 2024.
Following his tenure as an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky and senior software developer at Ansys, he joined the Pitt faculty in 2000.
Sanjeev Shroff, interim dean of engineering, recalled starting on the faculty at Pitt at the same time as Lovell, with Shroff in bioengineering.
“He was a passionate educator and really was deeply invested in student success,” Shroff said, with his teaching focused on product development and product realization.
Shroff credits Lovell with being central to the success of a 10-year, approximately $18 million grant from the National Science Foundation to fund the Engineering Research Center (ERC), which involved several additional universities. “He was instrumental in bringing all these people together,” Shroff said. He called Lovell “an innovator in research who really believed in the power of collaboration. That skill really contributed to the great success of this large grant.”
As associate dean for research, “he was a great communicator and motivator to bring people together to work on a common goal,” Shroff added.
“Although not a bioengineer by formal training,” wrote bioengineering faculty colleague Harvey Borovetz in a remembrance, “Mike played a very important role in helping Pitt Bioengineering grow and develop.”
The ERC included among its collaborators the North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University, a historically black college and university (HBCU) in Greensboro. “To this day,” Borovetz wrote, “NCAT is the only HBCU to ever be the lead institution for an NSF ERC. Those of us at Pitt who partnered with Mike on the NSF ERC were always looking for ways to launch new collaborations with him.
“Mike Lovell leaves an amazing legacy in so many ways ... as an academician, university leader, philanthropist, husband, father and colleague/friend. His impact will be with all who knew him for years to come.”
Former Dean Jerry Holder, who hired Lovell as associate dean, noted that Lovell was still an associate professor at that time, whereas most associate deans were already full professors. “He was just so good at that time that hiring someone so young was just the right move,” Holder said. “He was extremely hardworking.”
He recalled Lovell in the engineering building hallways in his athletic gear, since he was a serious and accomplished runner — and always with a slight injury “from pushing himself so hard. It was an illustration of what he did with his career. Everything he did was not just good, it was excellent.”
He moved from Pitt in 2008 to join the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and then Marquette in 2014.
— Marty Levine