FALL/WINTER 2007
annual report 2006–07
Discovery
“Revolutionary success in discovery is not merely the expected consequence of attracting the best and brightest people and acquiring the resources to do great things. It comes when individuals or teams recognize important problems, think of inspired and novel solutions, and use resources aggressively to pursue and refine the solution to its ultimate form.”
— Jeff Bolin, professor of biological sciences and associate dean for research
The goal: Recruitment of diverse, high-ability faculty and staff.
The result:
- Increase in distinguished and named professors from 15 to 28
- Increase in number of women faculty from 31 to 52
- Increase in number of minority faculty from 45 to 81
- Increase in underrepresented faculty from 10 to 16
- In four years, 91 faculty members received at least one research grant of $1 million or more.
The goal: State-of-the-art equipment, laboratories, and information technology.
The result:
- Richard and Patricia Lawson Computer Science Building, completed in 2006, boasts four specialty research labs.
- The structural biology group received $2 million from the National Institutes of Health to purchase a state-of-the-art cryoelectron microscope for Hockmeyer Hall of Structural Biology.
The goal: Distinction in multidisciplinary programs across the college and across campus.
The result:
- Seven areas of multidisciplinary priority created under COALESCE banner — Bioinformatics, climate change, computational science, massive data, membrane science, nanoscience, science education research.
- 44 faculty hired through the seven COALESCE areas.
- Four additional new multidisciplinary centers created and staffed — PHASE (acoustics), PCCRC (climate change), CRESME (science education), and CCAM (applied mathematics.)
