The Rutgers Board of Governors selects new chair and announces several endowed chairs
The following are news and developments from the June 19, 2014, Rutgers Board of Governors meeting:
Greg Brown Elected Chair – Greg Brown, chairman and chief executive officer of Motorola Solutions and a Rutgers alumnus, was elected to serve as chair of the Rutgers Board of Governors. He will assume the post July 1 and succeeds Gerald C. Harvey. Brown, a public governor whose terms expires in 2017, has been vice chair of the board. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Rutgers’ Livingston College in 1982 and was inducted into the Hall of Distinguished Alumni in 2010. Also a member of the Rutgers Board of Trustees, Brown formerly served on the Rutgers University Foundation’s Board of Overseers. He was the keynote speaker at Rutgers’ 246th anniversary commencement in May 2012, where he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. Read full release.
Two Endowed Chairs in Medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School – Leonard Y. Lee, interim chair of the Department of Surgery and chief of the division of cardiothoracic surgery, was named the James W. Mackenzie Chair in Surgery. Lee’s nationally recognized research includes initiatives that focus on inflammation in patients undergoing cardiac surgery as well as the use of stem cells for cardiac repair. Claire S. Philipp, professor of medicine and chief of the division of hematology, has been named the Melvyn, Ab and Yetta Motolinsky Chair in Hematology, endowed by the Melvyn H. Motolinsky Research Foundation. The foundation was founded as a memorial to Motolinsky, an alumnus of Rutgers University and Yale Law School, who died at age 26, only two months after he was diagnosed with leukemia. Philipp is an expert in bleeding and clotting disorders and serves as director of the Special Hemostasis Laboratory. Read full release.
New Chair in Adult Autism – The board approved the creation of the Karmazin and Lilard Chair in Adult Autism at Rutgers.The chair is being established by Dina Karmazin Elkins, daughter of Mel Karmazin, former CEO of Sirius XM Radio; Michael Lillard, chief investment officer of Prudential Fixed Income; and his wife, Amy. The families, who between them have three sons on the autism spectrum, have made a $1.5 million gift to the university to endow the chair. The gift is being matched by an anonymous donor, providing a total of $3 million to fund the position. The chair will address intervention and research for adults with autism spectrum disorders. It will be housed in the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, which for decades has been providing services to children and adults with autism spectrum disorders and other developmental disabilities. Read full release.
Andrew M. Mellon Chair in Philosophy – The board approved the creation of the Andrew W. Mellon Chair in Philosophy, the first endowed chair for the world renowned department. The new faculty position is made possible by a $1.5 million commitment from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and a matching $1.5 million gift from an anonymous donor who pledged $27 million toward an Endowed Chair Challenge. The university will use the chair to attract another distinguished philosopher to the department. Read full release.
Construction Contract Awarded for Chemistry and Chemical Biology Building – The four-story, 145,000 square-foot facility will provide critically needed teaching, laboratory and support space that will enable Rutgers to expand and accelerate its research in drug design, alternative energy, biomaterials and nanotechnology. The $115 million project is funded largely by the 2012 Building Our Future Bond Act. Read full release.
Acclaimed Poet Named First Henry Rutgers University Professor – Award-winning poet A. Van Jordan will join the creative writing program of the College of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University-Newark, this fall as the first Henry Rutgers Professor. The professorships, announced by Rutgers President Robert Barchi in February as one of the first initiatives of the university’s strategic plan, aim to recruit pre-eminent thought leaders and senior scholars to the Rutgers faculty in disciplines that align with the goals of the five-year plan. Read full release.
– Andrea Alexander and Carla Cantor