Dear Colleagues,
I am pleased to announce that Rice University has named physicist Thomas Killian dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences, effective Jan. 1.
Tom, who joined Rice in 2001, will succeed Interim Dean Janet Braam, who was appointed July 1 when former Dean Peter Rossky stepped down to focus on research. Tom brings a wealth of experience to the position. He has the temperament and vision to take the School of Natural Sciences to new heights of excellence.
For the past 19 years, he has served in many leadership roles at Rice, including deputy speaker of the Faculty Senate, chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, associate dean for strategic planning, and Rice faculty liaison and advisor to the Houston Midtown innovation district. Tom has led multiple long-range planning processes, improved student and faculty mentoring and support structures, and increased resources supporting the core educational and research missions of Physics and Astronomy and the Wiess School.
Tom earned his doctorate in atomic physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for studies of ultracold atomic gases and joined Rice after completing a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, where he worked in the emerging field of ultracold neutral plasmas. He holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard University and a master’s degree in physical chemistry from Cambridge University.
At Rice, Tom leads an experimental research group exploring ultracold atomic and plasma physics, with the goal of understanding the properties of matter at temperatures as low as a billionth of a degree above absolute zero. Under these exotic conditions, matter behaves in fundamentally different ways, providing insight into the basic laws of nature and laying the foundation for emerging technological advances in timekeeping, navigation and quantum computing.
In 2008, with collaborators at Rice and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Killian co-founded nano3D Biosciences (now called ChemoSen3D) to commercialize bioprinting and 3D cell-culturing technology for basic research, drug discovery and personalized medicine. The business, which sold nonclinical products to an international biotechnology company, now focuses exclusively on development of clinical applications of its core technology.
If you want to know more about Tom, please read the Rice News story highlighting his appointment. I hope you’ll join me in congratulating him on his new role at Rice, and thanking Janet for her service as interim dean.
Warmest regards,
Reginald DesRoches
Howard R. Hughes Provost