Date: June 9, 2005

To: UMBC Community

From: Arthur T. Johnson, Provost

We have successfully concluded the searches for deans of our two newly reorganized colleges. I am pleased to announce the appointment of Professor John Jeffries as Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences and Professor Geoffrey Summers as Dean of the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences.

I look forward to working with Dean Jeffries and Dean Summers in pursuit of our goals of providing a distinguished undergraduate program and continuing to develop our research and graduate education activities as we address the challenges that a tight fiscal environment present.

Professor Jeffries joined the UMBC faculty in 1973. Among his service contributions to UMBC, he served nine years as chair of the History Department and four years as President of the Faculty Senate. His research and publications focus primarily on the political and policy history of the Franklin D. Roosevelt presidency and on the World War II American home front.

In recognition of his work, he recently was named Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer. For his excellence in the classroom he has been named a UMBC Presidential Teaching Professor and has received the USM Regents Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching. Professor Jeffries received his B.A. from Harvard and Master of Philosophy & Ph.D. from Yale University.

Professor Summers joined the UMBC faculty in 1988 as Professor and Chair of the Department of Physics. Among his service contributions to UMBC, he served on the Academic Planning & Budget Committee for five years, including 18 months as chair. His research has been funded by the Office of Naval Research, the National Reconnaissance Office, and the Department of Energy among other agencies. He has authored or co-authored over 135 refereed scientific journal articles and over 70 conference proceedings.

In the last two years he has won the Best Paper Award at two international conferences and received the Irving Weinberg award of the Space Photovoltaics Research and Technology Conference. Professor Summers received his B.A., M.A., and Doctor of Philosophy from Oxford University.

I thank each of the candidates for their willingness to serve UMBC. Their candidacies made the two searches strong ones and provided the campus with an excellent discussion of the future of our two new colleges. I especially want to express my appreciation to Dean Welch for his nine years of service as Dean of Arts and Sciences and for his
support during this transition.

Also, I thank Vice Provost Lynn Zimmerman for chairing the search for the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, and Vice Provost Scott Bass for chairing the search for the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences. I am also grateful to the members of the search committees for taking the time and effort to serve during one of the busiest times of the year. I also appreciate the interest demonstrated in the searches by our faculty and staff who took the time to attend the public sessions and provide the committees with their views.

We will provide regular updates about the reorganization of Arts and Sciences as it progresses over the next several weeks.