Among many accomplishments, Desai spearheaded an ongoing project to reimagine the existing Prince Laboratory to create the Lassonde Innovation and Design Hub as a campus center for project-based learning, cutting-edge research and engineering innovation. Along with Brown’s dean of biology and medicine, she helped lead the visioning for the William A. and Ami Kuan Danoff Life Sciences Laboratories, a soon-to-open state-of-the-art facility for integrated life sciences research that will be home to four major research programs — cancer, brain science, immunity/infectious disease and aging — and cross-cutting areas such as biomedical engineering, artificial intelligence and RNA technology.

Desai oversaw the launch of multiple new research initiatives, including the Initiative for Sustainable Energy and the Center for Mechanics of Undersea Science and Engineering. She worked with Senior Associate Dean Kimani Toussaint to transition the Center for Digital Health to the School of Engineering and launch the Health Innovation Technology Sandbox, a space for the prototyping and testing of new digital health innovations. Desai also supported the creation of a new sustainable energy master’s degree program, along with an overall increase in master’s student matriculation of 23% over the last two years.

Among her proudest achievements as dean, Desai says, are the establishment of the Lassonde Innovation and Design Hub and the launch of a new undergraduate concentration in design engineering that encourages students to understand and develop innovative solutions to real-world challenges.

“The program epitomizes what Brown engineering is all about, which is combining technical rigor with the ability to think creatively and apply engineering principles to important societal problems,” Desai said. “That, coupled with a renewed commitment to providing hands-on and experiential learning opportunities for our students in this time of great technological change and the advent of AI, is the hallmark of the type of engineer that we're trying to create.”

Desai said another source of pride is the substantial increase in undergraduate student retention, a reflection of efforts to create an inclusive environment where students are supported by faculty mentors and peer groups. 

Desai came to Brown from the University of California San Francisco, where she led the Therapeutic Microtechnology and Nanotechnology Laboratory and helped to create a new Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, for which she served as chair from 2014 to 2021. In addition to her 1994 bachelor’s degree from Brown, she earned a Ph.D. jointly from the University of California San Francisco and University of California Berkeley in 1998. She has also held academic and leadership positions at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Boston University.

In her award-winning research, Desai uses micro- and nanoscale techniques to develop ways of targeting and delivering therapeutics to specific places in the body. Among many honors throughout her career, she was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2026 and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2024 and the National Academy of Medicine in 2015. Since she arrived at Brown, her laboratory has secured more than $4 million in research funding.

“I’m a person who loves to build things,” Desai said. “I’ve valued my time doing that at Brown, and I look forward to doing more of that in this new opportunity.”

As the University outlines a process to identify the next leader of the School of Engineering, Doyle said he is now considering candidates for interim dean and expects to share news about an appointment in the coming weeks.

“Because of its collaborative approach to teaching and research that crosses traditional academic boundaries, Brown's School of Engineering is uniquely positioned to address a wide array of complex technological challenges,” Doyle said. “We look forward to finding a new leader to continue this impactful work.”