February 2, 2026
Dear USC Trojans,
I write today to share news about the deanship at Viterbi. After extensive consultation with Dean Yortsos, we have mutually agreed that he will not seek the usual fifth-year dean review and will return to the faculty at Viterbi at the end of this academic year. The conclusion of his remarkable 21 years of service as the Zohrab A. Kaprielian Dean of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering marks the end of a transformational era for the school and for USC. I know that Dean Yortsos has established a strong foundation upon which the Viterbi School will continue to excel now and into the future.
I am immensely grateful for Dean Yortsos’ service as the longest-serving dean in the history of the USC Viterbi School and for the remarkable legacy he has created. His history of service began in 1991 as chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering, followed by appointment as Vice Dean for academic affairs. He was appointed interim dean of the Viterbi School of Engineering in 2005 and named to the permanent post in 2006.
Dean Yortsos has launched countless educational and research initiatives. He has advocated the concept of Engineering+, emphasizing the empowering nature of engineering across all disciplines, which has led to the creation of several interdisciplinary education and research programs across the university’s other professional schools. His leadership is directly responsible for reimagining what it means to be an engineer in the 21st century, paving the way for the school’s many prolific programs and milestones.
Together with his cabinet of vice deans and senior staff leaders, Dean Yortsos has amplified and enhanced the university’s academic mission and reputation through recruitment and retention of outstanding faculty, including 28 of which have been elected to the NAE, and more than 85 have received the National Science Foundation Early Career Award. The Viterbi School has also benefited from the construction of two major research buildings during Dean Yortsos’s deanship, and has raised close to $1B in external support over the course of his career.
Dean Yortsos was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2008, and between 2017-2023 served as a member of the NAE Council. As a result of his leadership, he has been recognized many times over by organizations around the world. In 2017, the Viterbi School received the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) President’s Award. He was personally awarded the National Academy of Engineering Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education, one of the NAE’s three annual national awards.
It is difficult to do justice to a more than twenty-year career as dean of a preeminent engineering school, and significantly more could be said about the accomplishments of Dean Yortsos and the Viterbi School of Engineering under his leadership. On behalf of President Kim and myself, I offer my sincere gratitude for his transformational contributions as Dean and for his total of 25 years serving in the Viterbi dean’s office. Dean Yortsos’ true legacy is the strength of the Viterbi School, which is greater than it has ever been. I know I speak for many in the Viterbi community and across the university when I note that Dean Yortsos’s impact will be long-lasting for Viterbi, the field of engineering, and USC.
I am pleased to share that Gaurav Sukhatme, Executive Vice Dean and Director of the USC School of Advanced Computing, has agreed to serve as Interim Dean for the Viterbi School of Engineering, effective July 1, 2026. President Kim and I are grateful for his willingness to serve the Viterbi community and the university in this capacity, and we are confident that the school will continue to thrive under his leadership.
Please join me in thanking Dean Yortsos for his unwavering commitment and dedication to the Viterbi School and his leadership contributions to engineering. A celebration worthy of his many years of service will be held in the future, which we will announce once the details have been finalized.
Sincerely,
Andrew T. Guzman
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs