PAUL DAVIS, Ph.D. is Dean of Interdisciplinary and Global Studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. That distinctive program places student teams around the world to solve open-ended technical and social problems. WPI’s twenty-two project centers range from Worcester to Wall Street and include sites such as the Silicon Valley, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Venice, Costa Rica, and Namibia. Each year nearly 500 WPI undergraduates—seventy percent of a graduating class—pursue off-campus projects. As an applied mathematician, Dr. Davis has written textbooks and developed software to support student-centered learning in mathematical modeling. His research interest is operation and control of electric power systems, and he has consulted for a number of corporations. He has served as Secretary of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) and as Editor-in-Chief of SIAM Review. He received his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.