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McCombe named interim CAS dean
By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor
Bruce D. McCombe, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics, College of Arts and Sciences, and vice provost for graduate education and dean of the Graduate School, has been named interim dean of the college.
McCOMBE
While McCombe is serving as interim dean, John Ho, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Physics, will become acting vice provost for graduate education and dean of the Graduate School.
Both interim appointments, which are effective July 1, were announced on March 30 by Satish K. Tripathi, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.
McCombe replaces Uday P. Sukhatme, who will leave UB to become executive vice chancellor and dean of the faculties at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
Tripathi praised McCombe, calling him "a uniquely gifted researcher and scholar, administrator, mentor and teacher. I have every confidence that Professor McCombe will continue to further the innovativeness, creativity, productivity and excellence evident throughout the College of Arts and Sciences."
Tripathi said that during the next few months, McCombe will work with Sukhatme "to facilitate a smooth transition of leadership and will subsequently assume the leadership helm (of the college) while a national search for a new dean is initiated."
A UB faculty member since 1982, McCombe has held several administrative positions at the university in addition to his current vice provost position. He has served as chair of the Department of Physics and associate dean for research and sponsored programs in the CAS. An internationally recognized scholar, McCombe currently serves as the director of UB's Center for Advanced Photonic and Electronic Materials and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.
Since his appointment as vice provost for graduate education and dean of the Graduate School in January 2005, he has led the development of new and innovative graduate programs, coordinated the systematic review of existing graduate programs, and has continued the improvement of graduate student central support services.
Ho has been a member of the UB faculty since 1983. He also has held numerous administrative positions at the university, including as dean of the former Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, chair of the Department of Statistics, and associate dean for research and sponsored programs for the CAS.
Ho is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow.