Two associate deans join Rackham staff

Alec Gallimore, professor of aerospace engineering in the College of Engineering, and Sarah Winans Newman, professor emerita of anatomy and cell biology in the Medical School, were approved Sept. 15 by the Board of Regents as associate deans in the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies.

Gallimore (Photo by Paul Jaronski, U-M Photo Services)

In his role as associate dean for academic programs and initiatives, Gallimore will coordinate all graduate school activities in physical sciences and engineering; help lead the $6 million National Science Foundation/Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate project to increase the number of Black, Hispanic and American Indian/Alaskan Native students receiving doctoral degrees; serve as a contact for Rackham on campus and nationally; and develop new initiatives and programs.

As associate dean for program assessment, Newman will help lead U-M's participation in the upcoming study of research-doctorate programs in the United States conducted by the National Research Council of the National Academies.

"Having assumed my role as dean on Aug. 1, I am particularly grateful that Alec Gallimore and Sarah Newman have graciously agreed to join Rackham's senior leadership group, along with Senior Associate Dean Kerry Larson and associate deans June Howard and Steve Kunkel. Each is ideally qualified to make important contributions to the work of the Graduate School," says Rackham Dean Janet Weiss.

Newman (Photo courtesy Sarah Newman)

"Together, we look forward to working in partnership with the deans of all the schools and colleges, and with faculty and students around the University, to improve the quality of graduate education and to create a climate that encourages graduate and professional students to succeed at doing their best work."

An experimental plasma physicist who specializes in advanced spacecraft propulsion, Gallimore is founder and director of the Plasmadynamics and Electric Propulsion Laboratory, and directs the NASA-funded Michigan Space Grant Consortium. He has received the Outstanding Achievement in Academia Award from the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Society; the Aerospace Engineering Award for Outstanding Accomplishment; a U-M Faculty Career Development Award; the Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award; and the Trudy Huebner Service Excellence Award.

Gallimore received a bachelor of science degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1986, and master's and doctoral degrees from Princeton University in 1998 and 1992. He joined the U-M faculty in the Department of Aerospace Engineering in 1992 and was appointed in the Program of Applied Physics in 1994.

An active emerita professor in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology where she teaches neuroscience, Newman was acting chair of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology from 1983-86 and the University's associate vice president for research from 1991-94.

Newman was an instructor of anatomy at the Downstate Medical Center, State University of New York, before joining the anatomy faculty in 1970. She has received the Medical School Elizabeth C. Crosby Award for Excellence in Teaching; Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award, Neuroscience Faculty Service Recognition Award; and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award. She has been an Elizabeth C. Crosby Lecturer and a senior fellow in the Michigan Society of Fellows.

Newman earned her bachelor of arts in zoology from Cornell University and her doctorate in anatomy from the Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences.