Dean of the Faculty of Science
UBC is pleased to announce that the Board of Governors has accepted the president's recommendation to appoint Dr. Meigan Aronson as the new Dean of the Faculty of Science for a five-year term commencing between July 1 and September 1, 2018.
Dr. Aronson is currently Professor of Physics and Dean of the College of Science at Texas A&M University, where she has appointments in both the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
Dr. Aronson received her A.B. in Physics in 1980 from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, and her M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Physics, in 1982 and 1988 respectively, from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Following her graduate work, Dr. Aronson held a postdoctoral assistant position with the Condensed Matter and Thermal Physics Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory and was a visiting scientist at Natuurkundig Laboratorium at the Universiteit van Amsterdam in The Netherlands. She commenced her professional research and teaching career in 1990 at the University of Michigan as an Assistant Professor of Physics and earned promotion to Professor in 2002. At Michigan, she also served as Associate Dean for Natural Sciences in the College of Literature, Science and Arts (2004-2006). Dr. Aronson has also been a Professor of Physics at Stony Brook University and concurrently the Group Leader of the correlated electron materials group in the Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Department at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
In addition, Dr. Aronson has served on numerous national and international boards and committees. She is currently Chair of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory External Advisory Committee, of the Helmholtz Society Review Board for Forschungzentrum Juelich, and of the American Physical Society Division of Condensed Matter Physics.
Dr. Aronson brings a strong commitment to research, teaching and learning. She has an extensive publication record, and has been honoured with a number of fellowships, including American Physical Society Fellow, and most recently this year, Fellow of the Neutron Scattering Society of America. Over the years Dr. Aronson has received more than US$13.5 million in sponsored research support. She is passionate about mentoring students and postdoctoral fellows, and has a deep commitment to diversity and improving the success of students and faculty.
We would like to thank faculty, staff and students for participating in the search process and for providing valuable feedback to the Advisory Committee. We are grateful to the members of the Advisory Committee for their commitment of extensive time and energy throughout the search.
We wish to express our gratitude to Dean Simon Peacock for his outstanding service to the University and excellent leadership of the Faculty during the past 12 years.
We would also like to thank Dr. Mark MacLachlan, who has agreed to serve as Acting Dean from July 1st until Dr. Aronson takes up her position.
We look forward to working with Dr. Aronson as she brings her strong commitment to teaching and learning, research excellence, and academic leadership to this role. We hope you will join us in welcoming her to UBC.