Tulane professor named 2015-16 CGS/NSF Dean-in-Residence

Brian Mitchell, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Tulane University, has been named the Council of Graduate Schools/National Science Foundation Dean-in-Residence for 2015-16.

Mitchell, who served as Tulane’s associate provost for graduate studies and research from 2006 to 2014, will assume the position Feb. 1. He will be on leave from Tulane for approximately a year.

The Dean-in-Residence program supports communications between senior graduate education leaders and the NSF. Mitchell will share with the CGS and NSF the insights, perspectives and practical experience of a senior administrator at a research university, while collaborating with the NSF to help plan future NSF programs and activities.

“Dr. Mitchell’s experience in graduate education is both broad and deep,” said CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega. “His particular experience establishing interdisciplinary graduate programs, collaborating on international research projects, and overseeing the training of graduate teaching assistants are just a few of the areas where he will be able to facilitate communication between CGS member institutions and NSF.”

Mitchell said he looks forward to the collaboration. "NSF has not only been a leader in supporting graduate student training, but in shaping the content of those students' professional development,” he said.

“Similarly, CGS is the established leader in evaluating trends in graduate education and advocating on its behalf. My goal is to not only support those ongoing activities, but to explore innovative ways to document and demonstrate the positive societal and global impact that graduate education has, not only in the STEM and related fields, but in all scholarly and creative disciplines."

After receiving his doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1991, Mitchell conducted research in numerous positions, including an NSF-NATO postdoctoral fellowship at the University Karlsruhe and Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowships at the German Aerospace Agency and the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces in Germany. His primary research areas are nanostructured materials and materials processing.