Professor Chmielewski named Interim Dean
2022-12-22
Writer(s): Steve Scherer
Jean Chmielewski, Alice Watson Kramer Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, has been named interim dean of the College of Science starting Jan. 1.
She is stepping in to replace Patrick Wolfe who will become Purdue’s next provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and diversity.
A national search for the next dean will be announced in early January.
Professor Chmielewski came to Purdue in 1990 after an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship at Rockefeller University and the University of California, Berkeley. She earned a B.S. from Saint Joseph's University and a Ph.D. from Columbia University.
An award-winning teacher and advocate for diversity in the Department of Chemistry and the College of Science, Professor Chmielewski has won numerous awards for her research, including the Cope Scholar and Edward Leete Awards from the American Chemical Society, and the Vincent duVigneaud and Murray Goodman Awards from the American Peptide Society. She was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and received the 2017 Herbert Newby McCoy Award, Purdue's most prestigious award in the natural sciences.
Her research focuses on designing novel chemical approaches and therapeutics to solve significant issues in human health and disease.
Several Chemistry faculty members have held high-level administrative positions during Purdue’s 150-year history:
- Professor Jeffrey Roberts served as Dean of the College of Science from 2009-2016.
- Emeritus Professor Harry Morrison was Dean of the School of Science from 1992-2002.
- Chemistry Professor Winthrop E. Stone served as President of Purdue from 1900-1921.