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ENG Dean Campbell named provost ad interim
By David J. Craig
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David Campbell speaks with archaeology major Danielle Carr (CAS’06). Photo by Fred Sway |
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When David Campbell and his colleagues at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the late 1970s recognized that their work in such disparate fields as physics, biology, and mathematics revealed problems common to each, they pooled their knowledge to find fresh solutions. The resulting Center for Nonlinear Studies, which Campbell directed at Los Alamos from 1987 to 1992, played a seminal role in defining the research agenda for the emerging interdisciplinary field of nonlinear science.
As the center’s director, Campbell helped formulate the basic organizing principles that guide research on phenomena such as solitons, chaos, and patterns. “That was my first serious administrative position, and I enjoyed it very much,” he says. “I like making things happen.”
Campbell, dean of the College of Engineering since 2000, recently was named BU’s provost ad interim. He stepped into the University’s top academic post this summer, following the departure of Dennis Berkey, who became president of Worcester Polytechnic Institute in July. Campbell also continues to serve as ENG dean.
“The members of the search committee and I were very impressed with David’s distinguished leadership at the College of Engineering,” said President ad interim Aram Chobanian, in making the announcement. “We are confident that he will excel in his new role as provost.”
As provost ad interim, Campbell now is the University’s chief academic officer, responsible for the 14 schools and colleges on the Charles River Campus, numerous research centers, institutes, and administrative offices, and social programs. He accepted the new job, he says, because “ Aram made it clear that although both of ours are ad interim positions, we’re not simply going to stand pat. We’re moving forward aggressively to improve the University in every respect.”
Campbell came to BU in 2000 from the University of Illinois, where he headed its department of physics. A theoretical physicist with degrees from Harvard and Cambridge University, he is best known for his accomplishments in nonlinear science at the atomic and subatomic level in novel materials, such as semiconductors, conducting polymers, and superconductors.
He has led ENG during a period of dramatic growth for the college, including its receipt in 2001 of a Whitaker Foundation Leadership Award, which is providing $14 million to support biomedical engineering. Under Campbell’s leadership, ENG has boosted the amount of external research dollars it brings in annually from about $20 million
to roughly $30 million and has launched both the Center for Advanced Genomic Technology and the Center for Information Systems Engineering. In addition, total enrollment, including undergraduate and graduate students, has increased by about 10 percent. “We’ve also enhanced our undergraduate research opportunities and made some wonderful junior faculty hires,” says Campbell, “as well as increased the number of women on our faculty.”
Among his primary goals as provost ad interim, he says, are “getting more input from faculty on the future direction of research. I’d like to have a standing committee to focus on our research goals, both in the sciences and in the humanities.” He also intends to “highlight the role of our undergraduate academic programs and begin a faculty-driven review of our curriculum across the various units.” One goal here, he says, is to “ensure that all our students are numerate: that is, that they have an understanding of, and fluency in, quantitative and scientific methodologies that is akin to their understanding of, and fluency in, reading and writing.”
An amateur tenor who almost majored in German literature as a Harvard undergraduate, Campbell says he finds it “extremely refreshing” to work with scholars in the arts and humanities. “I’ve always had broad interests,” he says. “So to have the opportunity now to speak regularly to someone like Marsh Chapel Dean Robert Neville, for example, and to have detailed discussions about theology is all quite challenging and interesting to me.
“This a very exciting time for BU,” he continues. “The student body is better than ever, we’re growing in all the right areas, and we’ve made huge investments, such as in the Student Village, that are going to payoff tremendously in the long term. My job is to help faculty members marshal their intellectual resources and keep us all headed in the right direction.”
Campbell, who enjoys skiing, tennis, and fly-fishing in his free time, lives in Brookline with his wife, Claude Hobson-Campbell, a professional pianist, and two of their children.
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September 2004
Boston University
Office of University Relations