Alice P. Gast, who led Lehigh University through a major period of growth as the school\u2019s first female president, died Monday. She was 67.<\/p>\n
The Texas-born academic, a prominent chemical engineer, served as president of the Bethlehem school from 2006 to 2014. She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer four years ago.<\/p>\n
In an article on the school\u2019s website, President Joseph J. Helble called Gast a \u201csteadfast champion of Lehigh University\u201d with a remarkable legacy.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI first met Alice when I was at Dartmouth and she was at MIT, and I was immediately struck by her intellect, her deep curiosity, her thoughtfulness, and her commitment to advancing education and research,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n After leaving Lehigh, Gast became president of Imperial College London, stepping down in 2022.<\/a> She also was the first woman to lead that school.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is with great sadness that I learned of Alice\u2019s passing, following a long illness,\u201d Imperial President Hugh Brady said in a post on the school\u2019s website<\/a>. \u201cAlice was known for her towering intellect, with a unique ability to see beyond the barriers that tend to confine us \u2014 be they academic, geographic, political or societal.\u201d<\/p>\n Gast is survived by her husband, Bradley J. Askins, and their children, Rebecca and David.<\/p>\n During Gast\u2019s tenure at Lehigh, the school developed a campus-wide strategic plan, raised $500 million in a capital campaign and added the 750-acre Stabler Campus in collaboration with Bethlehem.<\/p>\n She strengthened the school\u2019s ties with the city, creating the South Side Initiative \u2014 an educational and cultural collaboration among students, faculty and residents \u2014<\/a> and community school collaborations with elementary and middle schools.<\/p>\n