UCI Names Dean of Physical Sciences

Ronald J. Stern--a UC Irvine professor of mathematics with an international reputation as a leading scholar in his field--has been named dean of UCI’s School of Physical Sciences.

His appointment is effective July 1.

Stern will succeed Ralph J. Cicerone, who will become UCI’s fourth chancellor July 1.

The 51-year-old mathematician will lead a school that brought international attention to UCI in 1995, when Nobel Prizes were awarded to F. Sherwood Rowland in chemistry and Frederick Reines in physics. UCI was the first public university with faculty receiving Nobel Prizes in two different fields in the same year.

“Ronald Stern is an award-winning teacher, a leading researcher and a skilled administrator,” Executive Vice Chancellor Sidney Golub said. “His combination of skills along with his trust of his colleagues, earned by years of dedicated service, make him especially well-qualified to lead the School of Physical Sciences to new heights.”

As dean of physical sciences, Stern will oversee a school that includes nearly 100 faculty, an additional 25 advanced researchers who focus and guide the work of about 300 doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows, and 1,000 undergraduates. The school has four departments: chemistry, Earth system science, physics and astronomy, and mathematics.

Before coming to UCI in 1989, Stern was a professor at the University of Utah and a visiting professor at UCLA and the University of Hawaii.

Stern, who was the first in his family to receive a college education, earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., and his master’s and doctorate in mathematics from UCLA.