New Haven, Conn. - President Richard C. Levin today named Yale College Dean Peter Salovey as University provost effective October 1. "Few in Yale's history have been so well prepared to become provost," Levin said of Salovey. "He has been a highly successful and much admired dean of Yale College, an innovative dean of the Graduate School and superb chair of the Psychology Department.
(Media-Newswire.com) - New Haven, Conn. — President Richard C. Levin today named Yale College Dean Peter Salovey as University provost effective October 1.
“Few in Yale’s history have been so well prepared to become provost,” Levin said of Salovey. “He has been a highly successful and much admired dean of Yale College, an innovative dean of the Graduate School and superb chair of the Psychology Department. His numerous research collaborations with faculty in the Schools of Medicine, Public Health and Management have provided Peter with greater exposure to the whole University than is typical for a member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.”
Salovey will succeed Andrew Hamilton, who is leaving Yale to lead the University of Oxford as vice-chancellor.
“I am eager to work with the president and officers, and the team in the provost’s office, to support our faculty and students,” Salovey said. “It is an exciting time at Yale on numerous fronts, and the provost has important opportunities to contribute to the University’s progress on all of them.”
“Few in Yale’s history have been so well prepared to become provost.” – President Levin
Salovey, the Chris Argyris Professor of Psychology, joined the Yale faculty in 1986 after receiving his undergraduate degree from Stanford and his Ph.D. from Yale. He was appointed dean of Yale’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in January 2003 and assumed the Yale College deanship in July 2004. As dean of Yale College, Salovey successfully implemented recommendations of the Committee on Yale College Education, presided over rapid growth in international programs and was a strong advocate for major improvements in financial aid introduced in January 2008. In addition to his teaching and mentoring scores of graduate students, he has won both the William Clyde DeVane Medal for Distinguished Scholarship and Teaching in Yale College and the Les Hixon '63 Prize for Teaching in the Social Sciences.
Salovey has authored more than 300 publications, focused primarily on human emotion and health psychology. His research has explored the psychological consequences of the arousal of emotion, especially the ways in which moods and emotions influence thinking and social behavior. With John D. Mayer he developed a broad framework called "Emotional Intelligence," the theory that just as people have a wide range of intellectual abilities, they also have a wide range of measurable emotional skills that profoundly affect their success in school, the workplace and social life.
In his research as the former deputy director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS, Salovey investigated the effectiveness of health promotion messages in persuading people to change risky behaviors, and he conducts similar work on health communications targeting cancer prevention behaviors, which has been funded by the National Cancer Institute for two decades. He has served on the National Science Foundation's Social Psychology Study Section and the National Institute of Mental Health Behavioral Science Working Group. He completed a four-year term on the NIMH National Advisory Mental Health Council. Salovey was a recipient of the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Young Investigator Award and of the National Cancer Institute’s CIS Partner in Research Award.
The provost is the chief academic officer of the University after the president, directing educational policies and activities throughout the University. Salovey is the fourth provost appointed by Levin. His first provost, Alison Richard, currently heads the University of Cambridge. His second provost, Susan Hockfield, is president of MIT. Hamilton was named this past spring to lead Oxford.
Levin said he would soon announce a committee to advise him on the selection of the next dean of Yale College.
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