Professor Art Pyster joined the College of Engineering and Computing in 2016 as it began a rapid growth in hiring and research activity. His experience and his vision for what the college might achieve have played an important role in fueling and channeling this growth, leading to many significant accomplishments.
In college, Pyster was a professor of systems engineering, but his primary role was CEC’s associate dean for research. In that capacity, he oversaw the college research portfolio. During this time, annual awards grew around 4x and expenditures around 5x, ending 2024 with $84M and $92M, respectively. Major new labs across Northern Virginia now support classified research, robotics, nanofabrication, cybersecurity, wireless technologies, and many other disciplines.
“The growth in faculty, students, staff, space, labs, equipment, academic programs, research, and recognition has just been astounding,” said Pyster. “Just about everything of importance has grown by leaps and bounds, making for a much more impactful college than I ever imagined possible when I joined Mason more than eight years ago.”
Nevertheless, the first thing he remembers about coming to the college was how he was so warmly welcomed, and how there was so much opportunity. “It was the best career decision I ever made.”
While at CEC he remained active with the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) and the IEEE Systems Council. He is an INCOSE Fellow and has been recognized by INCOSE with their Founders and Pioneer awards. Pyster has authored more than 70 papers and two books.
Less than one month into retirement he said he has spent much of his time celebrating the holidays and being with family. When asked about future plans, he said, “Thinking about travel, volunteering, more time with family and friends, consulting, hiking, and a new trick or two such as possibly learning a new language. Will see how this settles out over the next several months.”
As for George Mason University, Pyster said he expects to see many significant accomplishments in the next decade and is truly grateful for the opportunities given to him by Dean Ken Ball and his talented colleagues across the university.