In Review

An academic leader who has guided the Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences to record growth and served as a key figure in Rochester’s new initiative in integrated photonics will be the University’s new provost.

Rob Clark, who as dean of the Hajim School also serves as senior vice president for research, succeeds Peter Lennie beginning July 1, 2016. Clark’s five-year term was approved by the University’s Board of Trustees at the board’s October meeting.

“Both as senior vice president for research and dean of the Hajim School, Rob’s service has been exemplary,” President and CEO Joel Seligman said in making the announcement.

Seligman cited Clark’s leadership in engineering, where enrollment has doubled over the past seven years and the Department of Computer Science has been successfully incorporated into the Hajim School.

Seligman also praised Clark’s leadership role in the development of Ronald Rettner Hall for Media Arts and Innovation, which opened in 2014, and the new Wegmans Hall, home to the Goergen Institute for Data Science, set to be dedicated in 2016, as well as his work to develop a new strategic plan for research.

When Clark becomes provost, he will step down as dean of the Hajim School, and a national search will be undertaken to name a new dean.

Clark succeeds Peter Lennie, the Robert L. and Mary L. Sproull Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Sciences & Engineering, who has served as provost since 2012. Lennie will continue to serve as dean of Rochester’s main undergraduate and graduate academic division until June 2017.

As the University’s chief academic officer, the provost works with the president and the senior vice president for administration and finance, to review divisional budgets, strategic plans, and facilities projects.

Since Lennie began his deanship in 2006, he has been what Seligman calls “my closest academic advisor.” As the University’s ninth provost, Lennie has led efforts to promote global engagement and a more robust institutional research program, among other achievements.

Clark joined the University as Hajim dean in 2008 from Duke University, where he served as senior associate dean and dean of the Pratt School of Engineering. In addition to growth in undergraduate enrollment at Hajim, he has overseen increases in the number of faculty and a significant rise in master’s program enrollments.

He has also expanded the role of UR Ventures, the University’s intellectual property portfolio, and supervised Rochester’s online learning initiatives.