Calit2 Academic Affiliate Named New Dean of UCI's School of Physical Sciences
July 19, 2006 / By Jennifer Fitzenberger
Irvine, Calif., July 19, 2006 -- John C. Hemminger, a chemistry professor and former department chair, who is also a Calit2 academic affiliate, has been named dean of the UC Irvine School of Physical Sciences, effective immediately.
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Hemminger, 57, will lead a rapidly growing school that is home to more than 1,400 students, 130 faculty members, $33 million in annual research funding, and Nobel laureates F. Sherwood Rowland and the late Frederick Reines.
“John Hemminger has broad experience in the physical sciences, from chemistry to physics to Earth system science,” said Chancellor Michael V. Drake. “This expertise, along with his strong leadership abilities and reputation as a consensus builder, will help take the School of Physical Sciences to the next level.”
Hemminger is the founding director of the Institute for Surface and Interface Science, which brings together chemists, engineers, physicists and biologists to study surface interactions and has helped establish UCI as a national leader in surface chemistry, physics and engineering research. Hemminger also co-directs AirUCI – Atmospheric Integrated Research for Understanding Chemistry at Interfaces – a multi-investigator effort to better understand how air, water and particles interact in the atmosphere and how those processes affect air quality and global climate change.
Hemminger is the recipient of several high-level honors, including the national Arthur W. Adamson Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Surface Chemistry from the American Chemical Society in 2004, and the Medard W. Welch Award from the American Vacuum Society in 2006. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Physical Society.
“I am truly honored to be named the next dean of the School of Physical Sciences,” Hemminger said. “This is an exciting time for our school. In the last several years, the physical sciences – chemistry, mathematics, Earth system science, and physics and astronomy – have developed close ties with other disciplines on campus, including biological science, computer science and engineering. It’s important to continue cultivating these interdisciplinary relationships, as collaboration is important to success.”
As dean, Hemminger will continue what he calls the “grassroots” nature of decision making in physical sciences, where all faculty members have a say in the school’s direction.
“My goal is to provide academic leadership that will take the school in directions important to our faculty members,” Hemminger said. “A strength of this school is that it has an outstanding faculty.”
Hemminger has deep roots at UCI, earning his bachelor’s in chemistry here in 1971. After earning his master’s and doctorate from Harvard University and spending two years at UC Berkeley doing postdoctoral research, Hemminger returned to UCI in 1978 as an assistant professor of chemistry. He became a full professor in 1987. He served as chair of the Department of Chemistry from 1993 to 1996.
Hemminger will succeed Ronald J. Stern, who has served as dean since 1998. Under Stern’s leadership, the School of Physical Sciences recruited more than 50 new faculty members, built four new research buildings, more than doubled its extramural research support and increased the size of its graduate program by nearly 70 percent. Stern also started UCI’s COSMOS program, a one-month summer residential program for the brightest science and mathematics high school students in California.
Stern will resume teaching in the mathematics department at UCI after a yearlong sabbatical, where he will conduct research at several mathematical institutions around the world.
About the University of California, Irvine: The University of California, Irvine is a top-ranked university dedicated to research, scholarship and community service. Founded in 1965, UCI is among the fastest-growing University of California campuses, with more than 24,000 undergraduate and graduate students and about 1,400 faculty members. The second-largest employer in dynamic Orange County, UCI contributes an annual economic impact of $3.3 billion. For more UCI news, visit www.today.uci.edu.
Media Contacts
Jennifer Fitzenberger, 949.824.3969, jfitzen@uci.edu