October 14, 2020

Jim Noble

Professor James Noble has been named chair for the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering (IMSE). His duties as chair began Oct. 1, 2020, although he had served as interim chair since March 2020.

Prior to his appointment as interim chair, Noble has served as the undergraduate director of studies for the department since 2008. He also is the site director of the Center for Excellence in Logistics and Distribution (CELDi), which is housed at the College of Engineering.

Noble, together with the IMSE faculty, have both short- and long-term goals in mind for IMSE. One short-term goal is to engage more with IMSE alumni.

“I had a really good conversation with our IMSE Hall of Fame leadership. They want to be more engaged with their time and resources,” Noble said. “They are an amazing group of people that can help us from an industry interaction perspective, and also want to engage to help the student experience.”

One long-term departmental goal for Noble is to have an undergraduate educational industrial engineering experience that is second to none.

“I want IMSE students to come away knowing that their education was state-of-the-art. Our faculty do a great job with the resources we currently have available,” Noble said. “But we are researching ways to upgrade resources to better support students.”

An additional long-term goal for the department is to expand its expertise and hire faculty in fields like advanced manufacturing and human factors.

“There’s a need in industry, and there is research funding that can support these areas,” Noble said.

These goals build upon the current strengths of the department. These strengths include a young and research-active faculty, undergraduate enrollment growth, the IMSE PhD program and joint certificate programs with the Trulaske College of Business.

About James Noble

Noble earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Oklahoma. He received his master’s and PhD from Purdue University. He has been at the College of Engineering since 1992.

His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Boeing, Bayer Cropscience, Ameren Missouri, Hallmark Cards, Honeywell, Leggett & Platt, Schneider Electric, the Midwest Transportation Consortium and the Missouri Department of Transportation.