Susan Hockfield, professor of neurobiology at the School of Medicine, has been appointed dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, according to an announcement by President Richard C. Levin.
The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is the largest of Yale's 11 graduate and professional schools. As dean, Hockfield will oversee academic and administrative policies for the school and its 2,300 students. She will succeed Thomas Appelquist, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics, who will return to his teaching and research responsibilities on July 1.
"Professor Hockfield has been closely involved with our graduate programs in the biological sciences, and I have been impressed with her grasp of the fundamental issues concerning graduate education at Yale and around the nation," Levin said. "I look forward to working with her to make Yale even more effective in the education of future scholars, teachers, and citizens."
Hockfield served as director of graduate studies for the section of neurobiology 1986-94, and has been involved with improving graduate training in the biological and biomedical sciences throughout her tenure at Yale. She has served on the Executive Committee of the Graduate School and on a committee to improve linkages among the biomedical sciences. She has also had a role in the development of the new Biological & Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, a collaboration among most of the biological science departments of the University.
Hockfield, who joined Yale as an assistant professor in 1985, said, "I am deeply honored to be entrusted with the challenge of guiding one of the world's finest graduate schools. Yale awarded the nation's first doctoral degree more than a century ago, and I am eager to work with our gifted students and dedicated faculty toward more 'firsts' for graduate education at Yale."
Of his discussions with Hockfield, Levin said, "She understands, first, that the Dean's Office must serve as a resource to facilitate and not direct departmental and interdepartmental programs. She recognizes also that efffective graduate education requires the careful mentoring of future scholars and teachers, and she will work to encourage departments to improve in these important dimensions."
Hockfield will also succeed Appelquist on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Executive Committee.
"As Dean Appelquist returns to the faculty, the Provost, Dean Brodhead, and I will welcome the voice of an accomplished scientist to replace his in the deliberations of the Executive Committee of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences," Levin said.
Frank Ruddle, Sterling Professor of Biology and chair of the search committee for the new Graduate School dean, said: "The School of Graduate Studies is a university within the University. In that respect Professor Susan Hockfield brings to Yale a broad perspective on graduate studies in respect to her involvement in both the School of Medicine and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
"The selection committee was particularly impressed with Dr. Hockfield's concern for the professional advancement of the graduate student body, both as individuals and in regard to our graduate student organizations. We can expect Dean Hockfield to enrich our graduate student body with the recruitment of outstanding student scholars in the years ahead," said Ruddle, adding that the neurobiologist's "academic stature and experience will enhance Yale's ability to attract outstanding faculty and create improved conditions for their professional advancement at Yale."
Of her mentoring of graduate students over the years, Hockfield said, "The joy in watching a young scholar blossom into a colleague has never waned."
Before joining the Yale faculty, Hockfield was a senior staff investigator at The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. For the last 12 years, she has been the program director for the laboratory's summer neurobiology program, which brings together Ph.D. candidates in the biological sciences as well as postdoctoral fellows and faculty for advanced training by leading scholars in the neurobiological sciences from around the world. Her own research focuses on the development of the mammalian brain, and her work has recently led to insights about brain tumor cells and the identification of potential methods to treat these tumors.
A graduate of the University of Rochester, Hockfield received her Ph.D. in anatomy from Georgetown University. She was elected to the governing council of the Society for Neuroscience and serves on a number of scientific advisory and editorial boards. Her awards and fellowships include the Charles Judson Herrick Award of the American Association of Anatomists for outstanding contributions by a young scientist. The new dean lives with her husband and their daughter in North Haven.
Levin thanked the faculty search committee for identifying Hockfield among other outstanding candidates for the position. In addition to Ruddle, the committee included faculty members Mahzarin Banaji, Mario Menocal, Annabel Patterson, Herbert Scarf, Douglas Stone and Kurt Zilm.
The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences begins its 152nd year this fall, and will welcome approximately 480 new students from among more than 4,500 applicants. The work of the Graduate School is carried on in the divisions of the humanities, social sciences, and biological and physical sciences. The three divisions encompass 65 departments and programs, 49 of which offer courses leading to the Ph.D. degree.
