GRAND FORKS (AP) - The University of North Dakota has announced that Hesham El-Rewini will be the new dean of its engineering school.

UND said El-Rewini is a native of Egypt who has been a professor and chairman of the computer science and engineering department at Southern Methodist University in Dallas since 2001.

Earlier, El-Rewini was a professor and interim chairman of the computer science department at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

UND Provost Greg Weisenstein said El-Rewini was chosen after a national search for a successor to the current engineering school dean, John L. Watson, who is retiring.