photo by: Contributed

Mahbub Rashid

Mahbub Rashid, an expert in health care architecture who has been leading KU’s School of Architecture & Design on an interim basis since 2019, will interview to become the new dean of the school.

Rashid will make a presentation to the university community at 3 p.m. Thursday at Marvin Hall on the KU campus. KU said Rashid was the final candidate to interview for the position, but hasn’t yet announced when it expects to make a decision.

In addition to serving as interim dean, Rashid serves as a professor in the school. A licensed architect, Rashid also does architectural consulting work, especially in the area of health care design, where he is nationally recognized as an expert in the design of intensive care units.

His research also focuses on how building form and space affect human behavior, office culture and various other environments.

Rashid has been a member of the KU faculty since 2005. He previously was a research scientist at Georgia Tech, where he also earned his doctorate in architecture. He also has an undergraduate architecture degree from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and a master’s in architectural studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Two other candidates for the dean position already have been announced and have given presentations at KU. They are Michael McClure, interim dean for the College of the Arts at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and Craig Anz, interim director of the College of Arts and Media at Southern Illinois University. KU previously had set aside a day for a fourth candidate to make a presentation, but that candidate, who was not publicly named, withdrew from consideration, KU said.