I am pleased to announce that Dr. Scott Gronert has accepted the position of Dean of the College of Letters and Science. Dr. Gronert will assume the role on August 1, 2018.

Currently, Dr. Gronert is the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Humanities and Science at Virginia Commonwealth University. In this role, he serves 18 departments and schools with more than 14,000 majors and facilitated $21 million in research awards in 2016-17. In addition, he developed and implemented an interdisciplinary cluster hiring program, increased research awards by 25%, and grant applications by 10%.

After completing his doctoral degree in Chemistry at UC Berkeley, Dr. Gronert conducted post-doctoral research at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He spent the next 16 years at San Francisco State University where he progressed from Assistant Professor to full Professor. In 2007, he accepted a professorship at Virginia Commonwealth University. He was promoted to Department Chair in 2009 where his notable accomplishments include the department placing fourth in the nation for undergraduate Chemistry Degrees, second for women, and third for African Americans. Under his direction, the number of BS Chemistry degrees increased from 59 (2008-09) to 134 (2014-15). He secured funding for and recruited 14 new faculty positions and obtained $700,00 in industrial funds to support their program.

Please join me in welcoming Scott to campus. I am looking forward to working with him as the incoming dean of L&S.

I would like to extend a word of thanks to the search and screen committee – in particular, Dr. Jennifer Doering and Dr. Thomas Malaby (respectively, the chair and vice-chair) – for their dedication and hard work that resulted in the hiring of Dr. Gronert.

I also want to express my personal thanks and appreciation to Dave Clark for stepping up on such short notice for the past year and a half, first as Acting Dean and then as Interim Dean. He’s done an admirable job and it’s been a pleasure working with him.

 

From the Provost’s April 30, 2018 Monday Update