BY Michael Hagearty
Following a national search, Georgia Tech's College of Sciences has new leadership. Paul Houston, a Cornell University professor and administrator, is succeeding Gary Schuster as dean.
"As a fellow chemist, I have been familiar with Paul's work for a number of years," said Schuster, who became Tech's provost last fall. "What impressed me most are the breadth of his interests and the rigor of his research. Given his knowledge and experience, I have no doubt he will bring the same enthusiasm in guiding the College of Sciences to new heights."
Houston, who served as senior associate dean of Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences, said he would like to continue the work Schuster began, positioning Tech's core science departments to meet modern research challenges in fields such as bioinformatics, photonics and nanoscience.
"Research strengths like these form a great base of both infrastructure and knowledge from which to attack new problems, bring new faculty research programs to Georgia Tech, develop new teaching programs and inspire new commercial ventures," Houston said. "The challenge for me as the next dean will be to strengthen and expand the college in areas where Georgia Tech has scientific advantages due to infrastructure or collaborative capabilities."
At Cornell, Houston led an active research group in the fields of materials and physical chemistry, pursuing lines of investigation in photodissociation dynamics, crossed molecular beam studies of reactions, light-emitting devices and exploration of biofilms. He chaired the chemistry and chemical biology department from 1997 to 2001.
Houston earned his bachelor's degree at Yale University in 1969 and his doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1973. He held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California-Berkeley before joining the faculty at Cornell as an assistant professor in 1975.
|
