Aaron N. Bloch, Provost of University At Buffalo, Dies At 53

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Aaron N. Bloch, Ph.D., provost of the University at Buffalo, died suddenly Saturday (April 8, 1995) in his home in East Amherst. He was 53.

Bloch had served since June 30, 1992 as UB's chief academic officer, overseeing all undergraduate, graduate and professional academic units in the university's 15 schools and faculties. He also was a professor of chemistry and physics.

He joined UB after serving four years as vice provost of Columbia University, where his responsibilities focused on science, engineering and technology.

UB President William R. Greiner praised Bloch's accomplishments in the less than three years he served as the university's provost.

"He was a terrific leader for the university who had a real ability to pull together faculty," he added. "Everyone, from the deans to faculty leaders and colleagues, had the highest regard for him. He was able in the short time he was here to encourage the deans' creativity and self-reliance."

Greiner described Bloch as "a great teammate and exceptionally nice man. He brought superior intellectual perspective and extraordinary experience to the job.

"He understood the importance of maintaining a balance between our core mission, which is undergraduate education, and our unique mission in graduate education and research as a major public university. He often said that public universities have obligations to serve the public, and that a great university is one that tries to make a difference. He truly was a key player in shaping UB's vision."

UB Senior Vice Provost Kenneth J. Levy noted, "Aaron had remarkable insight and incredible energy. He set high standards for people around him, but even higher standards for himself for the benefit of the university."

Bloch's accomplishments at UB included decentralizing budget decision making, and overseeing the recruitment of new deans for the School of Dental Medicine, School of Management and Millard Fillmore College, which administers the university's evening division and summer sessions. He also fostered a closer working relationship between the deans of the faculties of arts and letters, natural sciences and mathematics, and social sciences to improve undergraduate education at UB.

In a report to the UB Faculty Senate delivered in October 1993, Bloch indicated his commitment to building on UB's breadth of academic programs.

"We are the most comprehensive university in the State University of New York -- the only university with anything approaching our 12 professional schools, the only one with so full an array of graduate programs," he added. "We are the only public university in New York State that can offer all of this in one place and can nurture the interdisciplinary synergisms that follow."

He said he believed that UB also was prepared to take a leadership role at a national level.

"Those universities who are willing to work in partnership with other segments of society, and to look inside themselves and evaluate and project what they have to offer, are going to take the lead nationally.Š There are lots of reasons why we can be in the forefront."

Bloch was a member of the board of trustees of the Calspan-UB Research Center Inc., the board of trustees of the Western New York Technology Development Corp., the Commissioner's Doctoral Council of the New York State Department of Education and the New York State Temporary Commission on High-Speed Rail and Maglev.

A native of Chicago, he received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Yale University and a doctorate in chemical physics from the University of Chicago. He was a postdoctoral research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining the faculty at The Johns Hopkins University in 1969. He achieved the rank of full professor in 1977.

Bloch left Johns Hopkins in 1980 for a senior scientific position with Exxon Research and Engineering Co. While at Exxon, he recruited and headed groups in theoretical chemistry and physics and in condensed matter physics before being named director of the Physical Sciences Laboratory in 1984. He held that post until he left for Columbia in 1988.

As vice provost at Columbia, Bloch helped coordinate the evaluation and planning of broad academic programs, took the lead in devising and administering research policy, organized major interdisciplinary initiatives and developed working partnerships with industry. He also helped to build one of the nation's most successful technology transfer programs.

In addition to his administrative post, Bloch served as an adjunct professor of chemistry at Columbia, with research interests in the areas of theoretical and experimental condensed matter physics and chemistry.

Bloch authored six patents and more than 90 scientific publications, and delivered more than 100 presentations at technical meetings and institutions around the world. He had served as a consultant with the Theoretical Physics Group of Bell Laboratories, IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Energy Conservation Devices and the National Science Foundation.

A fellow of the American Physical Society, Bloch was an ex officio member of its council and member and former chair of its Panel on Public Affairs. He also was a member of the Committee on Public Affairs of the Materials Research Society and a former member of the society's council, as well as a former member and former chair of the Committee on Public Policy of the American Institute of Physics and the institute's Corporate Associates Advisory Committee. He also had been a member of the New York City Partnership's Technology Executive Council.

Bloch is survived by his wife, the former Enid Greenberg; a daughter, Sarah, of East Amherst; two sons, Adam and Michael, both of East Amherst; his mother, Judith Bloch of Chicago; and two sisters, Merry Jones of Gladwin, Pa., and Janet Martin of Miami, Fla.

Funeral services and burial will be in Chicago. A memorial service will be held at UB at a yet undetermined date.

Donations in Aaron Bloch's memory may be made to the University at Buffalo Office of Development, Box 607400, Buffalo, N.Y. 14260.