Harden new department head in MSU engineering college

Contact: Phil Hearn

James C. Harden is assuming duties as head of Mississippi State's department of electrical and computer engineering.

Harden, whose background includes commercial work in wireless cardiac monitoring and digitally tuned radios, was promoted last month. He had held the post on an interim basis since his predecessor, Marshall Molen, was appointed to an endowed professorship in 2002.

"We are fortunate to have a person with his industrial and academic experience to lead the electrical and computer engineering department," said A. Wayne Bennett, dean of the Bagley College of Engineering. "I am excited about working with him as we plan the next phase in the growth and development of the college."

Harden, a professor, was the department's computer engineering coordinator from 1996-2002 and served from 1990-96 as computer architecture thrust leader for the university's National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Computational Field Simulation at MSU. His industry experience includes early commercial work in wireless cardiac monitoring employing digital telemetry and Chrysler's first prototypes of digitally tuned radios.

Harden earned bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees, respectively, from Mississippi State in 1965, Georgia Institute of Technology in 1966 and Texas A&M University in 1985. He was named an MSU Hearin-Hess Distinguished Professor in 1991.