Hazel Sive named associate dean
of MIT School of Science
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (June 11, 2007) — Massachusetts
Institute of Technology Professor Marc Kastner has
announced the appointment of Whitehead Member and biology
professor Hazel
Sive to the position of associate dean
for the School of Science, effective July 1. Sive will
be the first associate dean in the School’s history. In
her new role she will focus on educational issues and
initiatives.
“I am delighted that Professor Sive has agreed
to be the first associate dean of the School of Science,” said
Kastner, who will become the dean of the School of
Science on July 1. “She brings a passionate commitment
to undergraduate education and is especially dedicated
to expanding international educational opportunities
for our students. I think she and I will work
well together in addressing many challenges facing
the School.”
Sive is currently chair of the undergraduate program
in the department of biology. "Hazel has done
an outstanding job running the undergraduate program
in biology—she has good ideas and is very effective
in bringing them to fruition,” commented Professor
Chris Kaiser, department head. “I look forward
to working with her on educational initiatives in the
School of Science in her new role as associate dean."
Sive will continue to run an active research program
at Whitehead that focuses on two major topics: development
of the extreme anterior (front) of the embryo, and
development of the nervous system, including the genetic
basis for formation of correct brain structure. She
uses frogs and zebrafish to probe these basic processes,
which give insight into human birth defects and mental
health disorders.
“I am very privileged to be a Member of the
Whitehead Institute and a professor at MIT,” Sive
remarked, “and to be able to perform research
in an environment where everything seems possible.
I feel privileged to teach and mentor our talented
undergraduates, graduate students and postdocs. And
I feel privileged to serve MIT further by helping to
set directions for the School of Science.”
The appointment will strengthen the very close and
productive ties between Whitehead and MIT, Sive emphasized. “Whitehead
and MIT have been inextricably linked for me since
the day I arrived,” she said. “Our connection
with MIT is very strong and important in both directions.
Whitehead Members have close research connections with
MIT, teach undergraduates and graduate students, and
serve on MIT committees.”
In addition to her research and departmental activities,
Sive is program director for a new MIT/South Africa
Program. Previously, she served as the co-chair
of the MIT Global Education and Opportunities Committee
and chair of the Committee on Student Life at MIT. She
serves on National Institutes of Health and National
Science Foundation grant review panels, as a journal
editor and on the Board of the American Association
of Anatomists.
Sive earned her PhD from Rockefeller University in 1986,
and performed postdoctoral research at the Fred Hutchinson
Cancer Center, in Seattle. She was named a Searle
Scholar and received a National Science Foundation Young
Investigator Award. She arrived at MIT and Whitehead
in 1991. |
