After serving five years as dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, Ralph Quatrano will step down on July 1 to make way for Aaron Bobick.

He was a seemingly unlikely choice. A professor with no formal engineering background, Ralph Quatrano was selected as the new dean of the engineering school—a school with five distinct departments. But Quatrano—former interim dean of the College of Arts & Sciences and former chair of the biology department—said that his unique background would help integrate interdisciplinary studies within the engineering school.