The Georgia Institute of Technology invites applications and nominations for the position of the dean of the College of Sciences.

The College of Sciences consists of the Schools of Applied Physiology, Biology, Chemistry & Biochemistry, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Mathematics, Physics and Psychology. The College also includes the Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC). The Fall 2012 enrollment of 2,100 science majors included 1,271 undergraduates and 829 graduate students. The College employs approximately 750 academic, research, administrative support, and other staff, which includes 210 tenured or tenure-track faculty members.

Georgia Tech is engaged in substantial growth in the life sciences, with interdisciplinary foci on environment and health, biomedical therapies and complex biological systems. Georgia Tech has considerable strengths in chemical biology, astrobiology, biofuels, ecology, evolution, earth and atmospheric sciences, environmental engineering, stem cells and regeneration and computational and mathematical biology that can be synergized to address challenges ranging from ecosystem sustainability to human health.

Georgia Tech has also made significant strides in the development of graphene and the nanoscience arena. The Institute has a strong reputation in organizational psychology, as well as in the fields of cognition and aging. It also has a burgeoning astrophysics program.

In addition, Georgia Tech sees K-12 education as an area where it can develop prime partnerships that will not only help to improve the value of the instruction that young students receive, but will help them prepare for life in a university setting. The Center for Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC) has developed programs with school systems throughout the state to improve student performance in STEM education with an eye toward under-represented groups.

POSITION PROFILE

As chief academic and administrative officer of the College of Sciences, the dean is responsible for providing leadership for the following specific activities:

  • Leadership and Strategic Planning: These responsibilities include directing and overseeing the programs of the College as well as developing the strategic directions of the College in concert with the Georgia Tech Strategic Plan. The dean articulates the long-range vision, specific strategies and detailed administrative and fiscal provisions to ensure the excellence of the College faculty and their teaching and research programs. In exercising this planning leadership, the dean works closely with the Institute’s senior officers and with the other deans on multidisciplinary hiring, and on research and teaching programs. A commitment to promoting the Institute as a whole, participative management and open decision-making are important components of the position.
  • Faculty Appointments: The dean of the College of Sciences is responsible for the recruitment, appointment, reappointment, promotion and tenure of faculty in the College. The dean works through the established appointment, promotion and tenure process of the Institute and is responsible for ensuring the integrity of the process. The dean works with the faculty, in the context of approved long-range plans, to develop annual recruiting plans for the College of Sciences, with the approval of the provost. The dean is responsible for ensuring that the Institute’s objectives, with respect to the quality and diversity of the faculty, are met or exceeded.
  • Budgetary and Administrative Oversight: The dean is responsible for all aspects of the College’s budget, consistent with the university’s financial guidelines. The dean is expected to work closely and collaboratively with the provost’s office in developing the budget for the graduate and undergraduate programs. In addition, the dean is responsible for supervising chairs of the College of Sciences’ schools, associate/assistant deans and staff, as well as for working with the faculty to facilitate extramurally funded research to support faculty research activities and graduate training. In addition to budgetary oversight, other principal areas of administrative responsibility include: the allocation of academic facilities, stewardship of the physical plant, planning for future academic facility needs, responsibility for non-faculty staffing decisions within the context of Institute-wide policies and procedures, and the initiation and development of collaborative teaching and research programs with Georgia Tech’s other schools, colleges and divisions, as well as with other institutions of higher education. Finally, the dean is responsible for the establishment of effective internal controls within the College.
  • Stewardship and Development: The dean plays a critical role in representing the College to important external constituents – regionally, nationally, and internationally. The dean has primary responsibility for articulating the philanthropic aspirations of the College of Sciences in conjunction with the long-range plans of the College and the Institute. The dean works collegially with the president’s leadership team and other academic leaders across campus in planning university-wide, as well as College-specific, fundraising priorities and goals. The dean engages proactively with the Institute development staff in executing those plans, including, but not limited to the College of Sciences’ school chairs, Sciences development team and volunteer advisory boards. In addition, the dean plays a critical role in ensuring that the donor funds received are well stewarded – advancing the needs within the College, as well as in accordance with donor expectations – and communicated fully and in a timely manner in accordance with the policies and procedures of the Office of Development.
  • Multidisciplinary Partnerships: The dean is responsible for managing the College’s engagement in cross-campus, multidisciplinary partnerships that significantly increase opportunities for true innovation in a range of fields. The College’s depth of expertise and celebrated research centers allow graduates to gain broad skill sets that can be applied to any industry and complement any professional interest. By blending research with education in a variety of disciplines, the College is leading this interdisciplinary effort in order to meet the challenges of the future. Research is a key component of the continuous growth of the College. Sciences faculty and students are engaging in a number of interdisciplinary/intradisciplinary activities with engineering, computing, liberal arts, management, architecture and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI).

CANDIDATE PROFILE

The ideal candidate will be an intellectual leader among the faculty, a strong advocate for the teaching and research mission of the College, a preeminent university citizen and an energetic and conscientious administrator, familiar with issues in higher education, science, engineering and technology. The next dean of the College will be an energetic and visionary leader who can make a difference in the future of the College and play a lead role in Georgia Tech’s march to excellence. Specifically, the ideal candidate:

  • has an outstanding record of scholarly achievement and international reputation in the broader Sciences community, appropriate for consideration for appointing the dean as full professor in one of the schools in the College;
  • is a seasoned manager and diplomat with strong organizational and team-building skills and the ability to inspire faculty with diverse interests;
  • has proven people skills and is a highly effective listener and communicator with both technical and non-technical audiences;
  • has demonstrated the ability to build multidisciplinary programs and an internationally focused educational experience for students, and is committed to developing partnerships around the world;
  • is ready to implement the Institute’s strategic plan;
  • is adept at fiscal management; and
  • has proven success in promoting and building a diverse community and shares Georgia Tech’s commitment to excellence and diversity, and the personal and educational enrichment of its faculty, staff and students.

Georgia Tech is one of the world’s premier research universities, distinguished by its commitment to improving the human condition through advanced science and technology. At its 400 acre Atlanta campus students receive a rigorous education to prepare them as leaders in influencing the technological, social and policy decisions that address global grand challenges.

At Georgia Tech, the facilities reflect the research and instructional emphasis on multidisciplinary partnerships. The biotechnology complex features laboratories for faculty and research groups in areas such as cancer research, astrobiology, ocean science and nanoscience all within a stone’s throw of each other. It’s an arrangement that encourages collaboration and learning. The new Clough Undergraduate Learning Center takes this idea further by locating many of the classroom and lab space for undergraduate science courses within the same building to both encourage multidisciplinary thinking amongst students as well as instructional faculty.

Construction plans include a new complex of buildings, the first being the 200,000 square-foot Engineered Biosystems Building (EBB), designed to promote cross-disciplinary research in biomedicine. The EBB is scheduled to be completed in 2015 and will provide space to foster research endeavors with institutions like Emory University Hospital and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

The Institute’s enrollment of 21,500 students in Fall 2012 was comprised of two-thirds undergraduates and one-third graduate students. A unit of the University System of Georgia, the Institute is a member of the Association of American Universities and the Georgia Research Alliance. The Institute’s budget, including research operations, is about $1.3 billion, and the endowment totals $1.7 billion. Research expenditures totaled $750 million last year.

While applications and nominations will be received until a new dean is selected, interested parties are encouraged to submit their materials by November 15, 2012 to assure optimal consideration.

Georgia Tech is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer.