Provost Stanley Chodorow has announced the selection of Dr. Ralph D. Amado, a leading scholar of nuclear theory who has been on the physics faculty since 1959, as Vice Provost for Research.
Dr. Amado, who has been Acting Vice Provost for Research since September 1995, when Dr. Barry Cooperman returned to full-time faculty activity, was chosen after a rigorous national search.
"Ralph has done a superb job as Acting Vice Provost during this past year, so I am delighted he has accepted the permanent position," said Dr. Chodorow. "He brings long experience at Penn, a broad understanding of the scientific enterprise, energy, and, most important, wisdom, to the provost's office. I look forward to working with him to enhance Penn's interschool research programs and to put Penn in a leadership position as the federal government and the country's research universities reconsider national science policy. I also look forward to our developing an infrastructure for research in the humanities and social sciences."
A Stanford alumnus, Dr. Amado attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. Taking his D. Phil. in 1957, he joined Penn that year, was named assistant professor in 1959, and rose through the ranks to full professor in 1965. He has also been a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and a visiting staff member of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and the Swiss Institute for Nuclear Physics. In addition to chairing the physics department in 1983-87, and again two years ago on an acting basis, he has been director of the General Honors Program, director of the University Scholars Program, faculty advisor to Arts House, associate dean of SAS for natural sciences, and president of Penn's Phi Beta Kappa chapter. He also served as a trustee of the Consortium for Scientific Computing of the Jon von Neumann Center, and is on the boards of the Merion Botanical Society and the Maurice Amado Foundation.
Dr. Amado is a fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; a former director of the Natural Science Association; and member of many national committees and editorial boards in the U.S. scientific community.
Almanac
Volume 43 Number 1
July 16, 1996
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