McCombe Named UB Vice Provost for Graduate Education, Dean of Graduate School

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Bruce D. McCombe, Ph.D., SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics in the University at Buffalo's College of Arts and Sciences, today was named UB vice provost for graduate education and dean of the Graduate School by Satish K. Tripathi, the university's provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.

His appointment is effective Jan. 1, 2005.

As vice provost for graduate education and dean of the Graduate School, McCombe will lead the development of new and innovative graduate programs, coordinate the systematic review of existing graduate programs and be responsible for the continual improvement of graduate student central support services.

"With his leadership and vision for graduate studies, I have every expectation that Professor McCombe -- working with the College of Arts and Sciences and the 12 professional schools -- will enhance the quality, innovativeness and national reputation of graduate and professional education across our campus," Tripathi said.

He praised McCombe as "an internationally recognized scholar, a teacher who has mentored more than 35 master's and doctoral students and a researcher who has supervised many postdoctoral students. His work always is characterized by excellence."

McCombe, who joined the faculty of the then Department of Physics and Astronomy in 1982, previously was head of the Electronics Technology Division at the Naval Research Laboratory. He has served in a variety of administrative posts at UB, including associate chair and chair of the Department of Physics, and more recently, as associate dean for research and sponsored programs in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Director of UB's Center for Advanced Photonic and Electronic Materials (CAPEM), he is an adjunct professor of electrical engineering in the School of Engineering and Applies Sciences. He

served previously as co-director of the Center for Electronic and Electro-Optic Materials.

McCombe's research interests are in semiconductor physics, particularly infrared and far infrared spectroscopy of semiconductor nanostructures, and spin-dependent properties of semiconductors for spintronics applications.

A fellow of the American Physical Society, he is the author or co-author of more than 220 articles in refereed journals and refereed conference proceedings. Former editor of Physica E, Low Dimensional Systems and Nanostructures, he has presented more than 120 invited talks at national and international conferences and workshops, and has organized or co-organized three international conferences and several international workshops and symposia.

He has been a visiting professor at Institut National des Champs Magnetiques Pulses, INSA, Université Paul Sabbatier in Toulouse, France; Gastprofessor at the Institut für Physik, Montanuniversität Leoben, Leoben, Austria, and an NRC-CIAR (Canadian Institute for Advanced Science) distinguished visiting scientist at the Institute for Microstructural Sciences, National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa. He was a visiting scientist at the Max-Planck Institut fuer Festkoerperforschung, Stuttgart, Germany, the Institute for Applied Physics, University of Hamburg, Germany; the Grenoble High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Grenoble, France; the Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University; the National Pulsed Magnet Laboratory at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and the Pulsed High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Univesité Paul Sabbatier, Toulouse, France.

A native of Sanford, Maine, McCombe earned a bachelor's degree, cum laude, from Bowdoin College and a doctorate from Brown University.

He resides in Clarence.