Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs & Provost
Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Education Appointment
November 2, 2009
To: Graduate School Staff, Graduate School Executive Committee
From: E. Thomas Sullivan, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost
I am pleased to announce that, after an extensive internal search, I have selected Professor Henning Schroeder, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies in the College of Pharmacy, as the new vice provost and dean of graduate education, pending Board of Regents approval.
Professor Schroeder brings highly relevant and extensive administrative experience working with graduate students and faculty. For the last several years he has served as Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies for the School of Pharmacy, where his responsibilities covered both Ph.D. and masters programs, as well as aspects of the professional doctorate program. He held the post of chair of the Department of Pharmacology at the Martin Luther University School of Pharmacy in Germany for twelve years. Through these leadership positions, Dr. Schroeder has been identified as a consensus builder with great people skills, and an impressive interest in disciplines outside of his own. He has an academic background in a rich, interdisciplinary Ph.D., as well as a professional degree.
Throughout his career, Dr. Schroeder has demonstrated that he is an exceptional scholar and a thoughtful, collegial, and highly respected academic leader who will foster excellence and provide strategic direction for graduate education. His candidacy received strong support from faculty, students, staff, and alumni. In addition, he served on the Committee on Graduate Education in spring 2009, and was a fully engaged and contributing member of that group throughout its deliberations.
Dr. Schroeder brings a fresh perspective to graduate education, which is critical and essential to help the University achieve its goal of becoming one of the top three public research universities in the world. His international and comparative background is an important fit with the large international population of graduate and professional students at the University.
Dr. Schroeder has an impressive academic background. He is a professor in the Department of Pharmaceutics in the College of Pharmacy. He has been a member of the University’s faculty since 2007, and previously was a visiting professor at Stanford University, and served on the faculty of the Martin Luther University School of Pharmacy and Düsseldorf University. Professor Schroeder serves on many advisory committees within and outside of his discipline, including the Scientific Advisory Board of the International Academy of Cardiology, the Scientific Advisory Board of the World Congress on Heart Disease, the Review Board for the Graduate Program in Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the University of Cologne, and the Advisory Committee at the Center for German and European Studies at the University of Minnesota. An active international scholar himself, researching nitric oxide, as well as antioxidant genes, Dr. Schroeder has an extramurally funded research program, and has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles and over 60 review articles and book chapters. He has a strong teaching record, has advised twelve Ph.D. students to completion, and currently is advising several students. The work of his group and graduate students has been honored with numerous awards. He earned both his Ph.D. and professional pharmacy degree from Düsseldorf University, and was a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University where he worked in the group of Nobel laureate Ferid Murad.
I would like to thank the search committee and all members of the University community for your broad participation in the public interview process and your written feedback on this important hiring decision. I also would like to thank publicly the other finalists; we are fortunate to have had an absolutely stellar group of candidates.
President Bruininks and I are confident that Dr. Schroeder will provide outstanding leadership and direction to graduate education at the University of Minnesota. We are delighted that he has agreed to serve. Pending Regents approval, Dr. Schroeder will begin his appointment January 19, 2010, with the start of the spring semester. Please join me in congratulating Dr. Schroeder on his appointment.
Email will be sent later today to Directors of Graduate Study, their assistants, students who serve on the Policy and Review Councils, and COGS leadership; the Executive Team and deans; the Faculty Consultative Committee; and the Administrative Email List. All faculty and graduate and professional students will be notified this evening. Meantime, you are welcome to share this exciting news with your colleagues.