Science and Tech

If you haven’t heard of Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T), spend a few minutes with Mohammad ‘Mo’ Dehghani. Before long, you will feel like you should have already been well aware of this storied engineering and technology learning center in Rolla, Missouri.

Dehghani, the Chancellor of Missouri S&T, is leading a remarkable era of growth for the public research university. Founded in 1870 as the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, Dehghani has led a transformation, which builds on the school’s decades of success in practical engineering fields to position it as a leading center for technology and applied sciences.

A quick look at college rankings shows that Missouri S&T is well on its way to becoming a major player in cultivating the next generation of innovators. In 2023, The New York Times recognized the school as among the top 10 highest-value schools in the United States, considering factors such as post-graduation earning expectations and tuition.

The Wall Street Journal ranked the school among the top 10 institutions for post-graduate salaries, joining well-known schools such as MIT, Stanford and Georgia Tech, among other accolades the university has received in recent years.

“I love the world of academics,” Dehghani says. “When you have a classroom of engineering students working through tough equations, and you see the light bulbs come on – that’s very rewarding.”

Learning and growth

It’s hard to imagine someone with a career better suited to the opportunity at Missouri S&T. Born and raised in Tehran, Dehghani moved to the United States in the 1970s. He eventually enrolled in Louisiana State University, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1980, a master’s degree in 1982 and a PhD in 1987.

His teaching and academic career began at Ohio University after he completed a postdoctoral internship at MIT. Presaging his work at Missouri S&T to bridge academics and business, Dehghani worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory – a leading multidisciplinary applied science and engineering national security laboratory – as a research scientist and the leader of several of the institution’s engineering groups.

---

“Working with Missouri University of Science and Technology has been a profoundly rewarding experience for Rieth Jones Advisors. Chancellor Dehghani and his team’s commitment to addressing complex financial, real estate and infrastructure challenges reflects a clear, ambitious vision. We value its collaborative approach, which not only honors our insights but also transforms possibilities into impactful realities for the university community.” – Brooks Pierce, Managing Director, Rieth Jones Advisors

---

Advertisement

Afterward, he took on leadership roles at Johns Hopkins University and Stevens Institute of Technology, and through it all, he continued to teach at the university level.

“It’s clear to me that Dehghani has the skills and expertise to help Missouri S&T reach its ambitious goals to solve some of Missouri’s – and the nation’s – most complex and urgent problems,” said University of Missouri System President Mun Choi when he appointed Dehghani Chancellor in 2019.

Leveling up

When he joined Missouri S&T, Dehghani listened to faculty, students, alumni and others to help define the school’s aspirations. From those sessions, he developed the school’s ‘North Star Goals’, which enhance its leadership position in terms of research, reputation and enrollment.

Dehghani says that attaining an ‘R1’ classification from the American Council on Education was a top priority for the research part of the school’s North Star goals. He and the team set a 10-year goal to meet the Council’s benchmarks for awarding doctorate-level degrees, funding for research and study and other factors.

As an example of Missouri S&T’s movement up the ranks, the school earned the R1 classification at the start of the 2025 calendar year, well ahead of schedule. On the other two goals, Dehghani wants well-known ranking systems to recognize the school’s growing strengths to bring more students to the school.

Progress on these goals has renewed engagement across the broader Missouri S&T community. For example, Dehghani writes a message every Friday to about 100,000 alums, students, faculty, parents and leaders of universities across the United States.

“Every Friday sharp at 8am, that one-page message goes out, which I report to the world about what’s going on here, what the research activities are and what services are available,” he says. “And that has generated a lot of goodwill. I hear back from people who graduated from this university in the 1940s and 1950s.

“These people are in their 90s and are all over the world, you know, mining engineers in South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Far East Asia and everywhere.”

A collaborative leader

Dehghani says he has built on the school’s reputation of molding ‘street-ready engineers’ by leading the development of the Missouri Protoplex at the Missouri S&T campus, which will enable small and medium-sized companies and researchers to collaborate on engineering, technology and applied sciences projects.

“There are about 10,000 small manufacturing companies in Missouri, and they don’t have the bandwidth to have their own research and development,” he says.

“So we have become the center of research and development for small and medium-sized manufacturing companies.”

The university’s reputation for matriculating highly skilled students has garnered attention from major companies, many of which have a significant presence in Missouri or the broader United States Midwest.

For example, Dehghani noted that 450 companies, such as Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Ford, Raytheon and Honeywell, were on campus to recruit students for internships and post-graduate employment opportunities.

Behind the scenes, Dehghani adds, dozens of companies – including Sodexo, Chartwell and Rieth Jones Advisors – help the university focus on its education mission every day.

“I think universities are like a light bulb,” he says. “They not only shine light onto their own environment, they also brighten the community in which they live.”