University of Colorado Boulder Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation, Terri Fiez, has announced that Patricia Rankin will step down as Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Research to return to the faculty on Aug. 15, 2016.
“Patricia has been a champion for faculty and their research, scholarship and creative works," Fiez said. "She has been instrumental in numerous improvements to the research support infrastructure at CU Boulder. Her dedication, commitment and leadership have been unequaled. She will continue to be an invaluable member of our community providing leadership as she returns to the faculty. We are thankful for all that she has done to support our research mission.”
As Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, Rankin was a key contributor to many of the transformations that have occurred in the Boulder campus’s research support operations. She has also been the principal investigator of a National Science Foundation ADVANCE Institutional Transformation grant aimed at increasing the participation of women in leadership roles in science and engineering and serves on the American Physical Societies Committee on the Status of Women in Physics (CWSP).
Rankin came to CU Boulder in 1988, was tenured in 1995 and became a full professor of physics in 2002. Prior to her appointment as Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Research in 2015, she was named Associate Vice Chancellor for Research in 2011. Rankin previously served as Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Research following service as Faculty Director in the Office of Faculty Affairs, and before then as Associate Dean for Natural Sciences.
She is a recipient of numerous awards recognizing her contributions to interdisciplinary research and CU Boulder, including a Sloan Fellowship, a Department of Energy Outstanding Junior Investigator Award, the “Best Shall Teach” Award and the 2014 Excellence in Leadership Award, among others.
Rankin, who recently became a U.S. citizen, began her career in the United Kingdom at Imperial College, where she so impressed one first-year professor, John Pain, that he asked her in 2014 to co-author the textbook Introduction to Vibrations and Waves.
“The Department of Physics is excited to have Professor Rankin return as a full-time faculty member,” said Professor John Cumalat. “She is an accomplished teacher and her past experience as a project officer at NSF and in campus administration makes her an excellent mentor for all of our faculty. Patricia has always been successful in attracting external support to carry out her research and I am certain this will continue. It will be great to have her back in the department.”
