Matthew J. O’Keefe

Matthew J. O’Keefe served as the dean of the Carl R. Ice College of Engineering from 2020-2025. He previously held the position of executive director of the Haley Barbour Center for Manufacturing Excellence and professor of chemical engineering at the University of Mississippi.

Before joining the University of Mississippi, O'Keefe had been at Missouri S&T as a professor of metallurgical engineering and had also served as chair of the department of material science and engineering. In addition he was director and senior investigator for Missouri S&T's Graduate Center for Materials Research.

O’Keefe received his doctoral degree in metallurgical engineering from the University of Illinois in 1993 and his bachelor’s in metallurgical engineering from Missouri S&T in 1985. He began his career as a planning engineer with AT&T Microelectronics and then transferred to AT&T Bell Laboratories. He had worked as a materials research engineer at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base after obtaining his doctorate degree.