Announcement: Dean Peter Weber

January 19, 2016

Dear Members of the Brown Community,

I write to share news that Graduate School Dean Peter Weber will conclude his administrative service at the end of the spring semester, returning full-time to teaching and research in the Department of Chemistry. We will launch a search for Dean Weber's successor in the coming weeks, working closely with him and the Graduate School staff over the spring semester to ensure an orderly transition.

Dean Weber has been at Brown since 1989, and has made significant contributions since being appointed dean in July 2010. He has provided valuable leadership during a period of critical growth, supporting the expansion of the graduate student population by approximately 17%. During this time, he has been an effective advocate for increasing doctoral financial aid. He implemented the Presidential Fellows program, an early initiative of Building on Distinction that recognizes academic promise and carries enhanced stipend support. He also worked to augment financial certainty for doctoral students in disciplines that can require more than five years of study, creating a mechanism for advanced student funding in the Humanities and Social Sciences based on student and program input.

He has enhanced the distinctiveness of graduate education at Brown through a number of initiatives, including the Open Graduate Education program. Launched in 2011 with partial funding from the Mellon Foundation, this program provides flexibility for select doctoral students to define their academic journey and earn a secondary master's degree of their choosing. Together with the dean of the Faculty, Dean Weber developed the Deans' Faculty Fellowship Program, enabling advanced doctoral students to strengthen their teaching portfolios. He expanded the Brown- Wheaton Faculty Fellowships, and has worked to strengthen graduate student benefits.

I am grateful to Dean Weber for his commitment to Brown and the Graduate School. We will have an opportunity later in the semester to celebrate his service.

Sincerely,

Richard M. Locke, Provost