Joseph R. 'Josh' Gladden III
OXFORD, Miss. – Joseph R. Gladden III is the new director of the National Center for Physical Acoustics at the University of Mississippi.
His appointment began Jan. 1, following approval from the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning.
Gladden, an associate professor of physics, joined the UM faculty as an assistant professor in 2005 after earning his Ph.D. and working as a post-doctoral fellow at Pennsylvania State University. Before that, he worked three years as a physics instructor at the United World College in Montezuma, N.M. The United World College is an international school for gifted students representing approximately 70 countries with a network of 10 sister campuses around the globe.
UM Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Morris Stocks said Gladden is an excellent choice for the position.
“I am pleased that Dr. Gladden has been selected for this important leadership opportunity,” Stocks said. “An outstanding faculty member and a distinguished scientist, he holds the respect of his colleagues in the National Center for Physical Acoustics. I look forward to his leadership of this outstanding center.”
Alice Clark, UM vice chancellor of research and sponsored programs, said she is confident that NCPA will continue to flourish under the Gladden’s leadership.
“Dr. Gladden is a highly regarded scholar, educator and leader in the field of physical acoustics,” Clark said. “NCPA will benefit from his national reputation, technical expertise, commitment to education and his proven leadership skills.”
Gladden said his vision is for the center to expand NCPA’s more-than-20-year history of partnering with both the federal government and private industry on research projects.
“There are many responsibilities, but perhaps the most important is to act as the public face for the NCPA,” Gladden said. “The director is responsible for conveying the capabilities and achievements of the scientists and engineers at NCPA to all interested parties, which can range from other organizations on campus to the federal government to private industry.”
In his new post, Gladden will assist with fundraising, resource management and faculty development, as well as managing personnel and technical capabilities of the lab.
“I will be working with senior personnel to establish new lines of research and seek new funding opportunities,” he said. “A second goal of mine for the NCPA is to strengthen our ties with other units within the university. We would like to build on our close ties with the Department of Physics and Astronomy and School of Engineering and increase general awareness around campus about what we do here.”
Gladden holds master’s and doctoral degrees in physics from the University of Montana and Penn State, respectively. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of the South and was a post-doctoral fellow at Penn State in 2003-2005.
Gladden co-authored a paper, “Motion of a Viscoelastic Micellar Fluid Around a Cylinder: Flow and Fracture,” which was listed in “Physics News of 2007” by the American Physical Society. His other honors and awards include membership on the Emerging Leaders Conference steering committee of promising recent alumni of the University of the South, both the Duncan and Bradock Fellowships for doctoral students at Penn State, the Tandy Technology Scholars Award for Education in Science and the William T. Allen Award in Physics.
Gladden has co-authored 21 juried articles, been an invited speaker at 18 conferences and secured research grants totaling $621,005 over a seven-year period. Gladden’s research areas are resonant ultrasound spectroscopy, wormlike micellar materials, continuum and granular dynamics.
He and his wife, Nicole, have three children: Chase, Camille and Josephine.
Established in 1989, the NCPA has unique facilities and infrastructure, including an anechoic chamber, a mach 5 wind tunnel, a jet test facility, a resonant ultra spectroscopy lab, Faraday labs and a multimillion dollar machine shop for in-house design. NCPA employs 30 permanent, full-time individuals, as well as 16 graduate students, five research fellows and eight undergraduates, with more than $7 million in annual funding. Its research scientists are recognized experts in their fields, bringing experience from government, academia and industry.
View Gladden’s website.
For more information, visit the UM National Center for Physical Acoustics, or call 662-915-5889.