Al Sacco, Jr.
Provost and Dean of Faculty
Active
Office
MH 261
education
- Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, MIT
- B.S., Chemical Engineering, Northeastern University
awards
- 2015 Fuels and Petroleum Division AIChE Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award
- New England Institute of Chemist Distinguished Chemist Award 2010
- Pirandello Lyceum I Migliori in Mens et Gesta” Award 2005
- Elected Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers 2001
He is the former dean of the Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering at Texas Tech University.
Prior to joining Texas Tech, Al was the George A. Snell Distinguished Professor of Engineering and the director of the Center for Advanced Microgravity Materials Processing at Northeastern University.
Al is a former NASA astronaut. He flew as the payload specialist on the Space Shuttle Columbia on shuttle mission STS-73 in 1995. The 16-day mission aboard the Columbia centered on a range of science-focused research within the pressurized Spacelab module.
Originally from Boston, Al earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at Northeastern University and his PhD in chemical engineering from MIT. He joined the faculty at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, becoming a full professor and serving as the chair of the chemical engineering department before eventually returning to Northeastern.
During his 12 years at Texas Tech, Al had a significant role in recruiting a more diverse group of students to the college, improving the college’s rankings and raising money for scholarships; he also oversaw the Scaled Wind Farm Technology facility (SWiFT), a collaborative research initiative between the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Wind Institute and Texas Tech.
Al lives in Belmont, Massachusetts.