A physicist will again lead Art/Sci

In a physicist renowned for his research, CWRU sees a leader ready for an era of collaboration and discovery. David Gerdes, chair of the department of physics at the University of Michigan, will become dean of the College of Arts and Sciences beginning March 1.

He replaces Peter Whiting, a professor of environmental sciences who served as interim dean during the national search. And he follows in the footsteps of Cyrus Taylor, a physicist who led the College of Arts and Sciences for a dozen years before returning to the classroom in 2020.

“The College of Arts and Sciences is a core piece of the Case Western Reserve experience, and it demands an exceptional leader,” CWRU President Eric Kaler announced Nov. 18. “I am eager to support David as he works to bolster the impressive breadth of education, research, scholarship, and creative endeavors taking place across the college.”

Both Kaler and Provost Joy Ward praised Gerdes’s research skills and noted his success with interdisciplinary collaboration. A professor of physics and astronomy, Gerdes also chairs the Michigan Society of Fellows, which promotes interdisciplinary scholarship across the university.

Kaler has made interdisciplinary research a guiding theme, one embodied in the $300 million Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building now rising on Case Quad.

For Gerdes, the new job offers a homecoming. He grew up in Hudson east of Cleveland, where his parents still live, and graduated from Hudson High School, class of 1982. The deanship, he said, fulfills a desire to lead more broadly in academia.

“As my time as chair was winding down, I’ve really found that I’ve enjoyed being in academic leadership,” Gerdes told Crain’s Cleveland Business. “As I thought about what I wanted to do next, I really was interested in leading an institution on a broader scale beyond physics and even beyond the sciences.”

A member of the UM faculty for 26 years, Gerdes began his career as a high-energy physicist. He contributed to the discovery of the top quark, the heaviest known elementary particle, for which he was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

“David’s scholarship is impressive,” Ward said in a statement. “But his leadership skills, commitment to the student experience, and dedication to the wide range of studies across the College of Arts and Sciences are even more remarkable.”