New science dean is “strong advocate”

Lipson Photo: Contributed

Dr. Rob Lipson is the new dean of science, effective July 1.
He is currently a professor in the University of Western Ontario’s Department of Chemistry with a cross appointment in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and is the Department of Chemistry’s former chair.

Lipson is a fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada (2009) and the former director of the Western Institute for Nanomaterials Science (2005–10). He is the recipient of numerous academic prizes, including the Florence Bucke Prize for Research Excellence (2000), a Distinguished Research Professorship from the UWO Faculty of Science (2008), and the E.G. Pleva Award (2008)—Western’s highest accolade for teaching. He is the senior editor for the Canadian Journal of Chemistry.

Lipson serves on numerous boards, including the Technical Advisory Board of the Ontario Centres of Excellence in Photonics and the Canadian Society of Chemistry Accreditation Committee (CSC), and he is director of conferences for CSC. He has also served as a member (2004–06) and chair (2007) of the NSERC Grant Selection Committee for Physical and Analytical Chemistry, as a member of the NSERC E.W.R. Steacie Award Committee (2008-10), and on several committees for the Optical Society of America.

“The faculty and the university will hugely benefit from Dr. Lipson’s experience,” says Vice-President Academic and Provost Jamie Cassels. “He is known to be a strong and effective advocate for education and research, both within the university and beyond, and to be effective in securing support for academic initiatives.”

“I am thrilled to be coming to the University of Victoria,” says Lipson. “I have long admired the chemistry department, whose research excellence is well known on the national and international stages. What I have recently learned by exploring the expertise and accomplishments of the University of Victoria is just how strong the entire Faculty of Science is across the board in both teaching and in research activities, ranging from fundamental mathematics to more applied work. From my perspective, UVic science is already making an impact in our understanding of space, the planet and oceans, biological materials, exotic molecules and at the subatomic level. I am looking forward to working with such a distinguished academy to enhance its teaching and research missions. I am truly honored and humbled to have been selected as its new dean.”

More information about Lipson: http://www.uwo.ca/chem/people/faculty/lipson.htm