Cartwright Named UB Vice Provost for Strategic Initiatives

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Alexander N. Cartwright, professor of electrical engineering in the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, has been appointed UB's vice provost for strategic initiatives, a new position in which he will serve as the point person in the Provost's Office for the UB 2020 strategic strengths initiatives.

As vice provost for strategic initiatives, Cartwright will be responsible for building the research infrastructure and collaborative efforts across multiple strategic strengths, as well as for special UB initiatives.

More specifically, his responsibilities will include ensuring continued advancement of the strategic strength initiatives, serving as liaison between the strategic strengths and the relevant vice presidents and vice provosts, coordinating common activities for the strategic strengths, and as relevant, establishing new strategic initiatives and assisting in the implementation process.

Cartwright said he plans to continue teaching and working in his lab -- the Laboratory for Advanced Spectroscopic Evaluation -- in addition to fulfilling his new administrative duties. "Teaching and research are essential parts of the role of a professor," he said.

Satish K. Tripathi, UB provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, said he is very pleased that Cartwright has taken on the new responsibility of vice provost for strategic initiatives.

"With the strategic strengths progressing from the planning stage to the implementation stage, Vice Provost Cartwright will provide our faculty with the necessary support and guidance, thus facilitating the development of the strategic strengths and the realization of their respective visions," Tripathi said.

"Professor Cartwright has been a terrific university citizen and has emerged as a natural leader, helping to shepherd the strategic strengths initiative. As a scientist, he truly understands the value of interdisciplinary research -- the ethos of the strategic strengths initiative -- and shares a real appreciation for the full array of research, scholarly and creative work conducted across our university," he added.

Cartwright says the appointment springs from his work as a member of UB's 2006-07 Faculty in Leadership class. His project for the program, which is designed to give faculty members administrative duties that acquaint them with important issues in higher education, focused on measuring and determining ways to maximize the success of the UB 2020 strategic strengths initiative. As part of his work, he said, he "identified certain things (regarding the strategic strengths) that would benefit from being addressed in a systematic way."

Moreover, he holds a unique perspective on the strategic strength issue, serving as director of the Integrated Nanostructured Systems strategic strength initiative for the past year.

Cartwright has been a UB faculty member since 1995. His current research interests include ultrafast spectroscopy of the optical properties of semiconductor nanostructures, development of hybrid inorganic and organic materials and device structures for solar cells, design and fabrication of biological and chemical sensors, and development of methods for optical nondestructive testing of stress and strain for assessing device reliability.

He serves as a director of the Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics, director of UB's National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) in "Biophotonics: Materials and Applications" and is a co-director of the Electronics Packaging Laboratory.

An adjunct faculty member in the Department of Physics in the UB College of Arts and Sciences, he is a member of the Center for Spin Effects and Quantum Information in Nanostructures and the Center for Unified Biometrics and Sensors.

He has won numerous prestigious research awards, among them the Department of Defense Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award and the National Science Foundation CAREER award, as well as UB's Reifler Award.

In addition to demonstrated research excellence, he is a recipient of a 2002 SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Cartwright earned bachelor's and doctoral degrees in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Iowa.

He is a resident of Williamsville.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, the largest and most comprehensive campus in the State University of New York. UB's more than 27,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.