After 10 years of service, Dean of Engineering Matthew Tirrell will be leaving UCSB for a post at UC Berkeley.

Tirrell has accepted the position of Arnold and Barbara Silverman Professor of Bioengineering, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at UC Berkeley, and will also serve as the university’s Chair of Bioengineering. Tirrell’s appointment will begin July 1 of this year.

Tirrell said he is moving on from UCSB’s College of Engineering in order to fulfill his career goals and research interests, particularly in the field of bioengineering.

“I have been dean of the college here for 10 years, and I feel that’s a good time to rethink career objectives,” Tirrell said.

In a memo to the campus, Chancellor Henry T. Yang thanked Tirrell for the years of he spent at UCSB and wished him luck in his future endeavors.

“It is with a sense of both deep gratitude and regret that I write to share with you that Dr. Matthew Tirrell… has decided to move on to a new challenge after a decade of extraordinary leadership of our College of Engineering,” Chancellor Yang said. “I would like to take this opportunity to thank and congratulate Dean Tirrell for his tremendous achievements and contributions to our campus.”

When asked about his time at UCSB, Tirrell noted the accomplishments of his tenure and expressed gratitude toward students and the faculty for their work with the college.

“I have been honored to be Dean here at UCSB,” Tirrell said. “I feel very lucky to have had the chance to do this job. The caliber of our programs and the talent of our students has grown over the last decade. I think the students, faculty and staff are all owed a big portion of the credit of the progress.”

Over the past decade, Tirrell has seen over the founding of the Technology Management Program, the California NanoSystems Institute, the Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies and the Institute for Energy Efficiency.

With the position for Dean of the College of Engineering soon to be vacant, Chancellor Yang said he has begun searching for a replacement.

“Executive Vice Chancellor Gene Lucas and I are in the process of consulting with our campus community to form an advisory committee to conduct a national search for our next Dean of Engineering,” Chancellor Yang said in a campus memo.

Dean Tirrell first came to UCSB in 1999. He received his Bachelors in Science from Northwestern University in 1973, and completed a Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering at the University of Massachusetts in 1977.