Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to share that Nicole Sampson, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and distinguished professor of Chemistry, has accepted a deanship at the University of Rochester. Dean Sampson has spent three decades in her independent career at Stony Brook University and has made significant impact in her time here.

Effective August 7, 2023, Dean Sampson will take on the position of Robert L. and Mary L. Sproull Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and University Professor at Rochester. I will seek to name an interim as we prepare for a search to replace her. If you wish to nominate any candidates (including self-nominations), please click here to submit them via an online form.

Dean Sampson joined the Department of Chemistry in 1993 as an assistant professor.  She served as chair of the department for several years, and before that, served as an associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS). She was named interim dean of CAS in 2018, and appointed dean of the College in March 2020. She led CAS through some of its most challenging times, from budgetary constraints and curricular modifications, to a global pandemic heightened by political and social upheaval. We appreciate her determination and commitment to ensuring the College’s success throughout. 

Dean Sampson co-created “Navigating to 2030,” a shared vision for CAS, in collaboration with faculty, unit leaders and her leadership team, encompassing existing constellations of strength and identifying areas of research strength, the needs of current and future students and what their education should be in a dynamic and diversified global world. This vision serves as a basis for investment, communications, and innovative change, and was recently updated to outline key goals that will continue to drive the College forward.

As dean she has led several key accomplishments across CAS including:

• Development of curriculum and research agendas for multiple programs including globalization studies and international relations, quantum information science, and digital intelligence
• Creation of key drivers of interdisciplinary collaboration including the Hub for Migration and Mobilities and the Center for Changing Systems of Power with several targeted transdisciplinary faculty hires in support of these and other initiatives
• Multiple efforts to support diversity, equity, inclusion, and access, including the appointment of the first Associate Dean for Innovation, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) in CAS, and the initial development of the IDEA Fellowsprogram based on the recommendation of multiple DEI committees, encouraging prospective faculty committed to IDEA principles to enter the professoriate and build their careers at Stony Brook
• Considerable philanthropic success stewarding multi-million-dollar gifts that have benefited CAS in many areas supporting faculty hiring, fueling growth of departments, enhancing interdisciplinary centers, and expanding support for undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships

As a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry, Dean Sampson has a long track record of innovative research and curriculum development. Her research program began with investigating mechanisms for how protein catalysts function at the sterol:lipid interface and identifying the proteins responsible for mammalian fertilization. Today, Dean Sampson’s research encompasses characterization and analysis of tuberculosis biochemistry and metabolism to support drug discovery efforts, new methods for synthesizing non-biological polymers with precise sequences, and utilizing these polymers to target cholera intoxication and fertilization. Her work has been continuously funded by NIH since 1995 and she has directly brought into the university more than $19 million in research funding. Dean Sampson has mentored more than 100 undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral researchers in her laboratory who have gone on to research and education careers in academia, biopharma, and the biomedical workforce across the globe. She co-established the Chemical Biology Graduate Training Program (CBTP), which has been funded by NIH since 2010. Throughout her career trajectory, Dean Sampson has excelled at bringing quantitative molecular insights across many biological arenas through her leadership in education and research.

I appreciate all that Dean Sampson has done for CAS and Stony Brook, and wish her all the best in her new role at Rochester.

Sincerely,
Carl

Carl Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President