UW USER Introductions to the Steering Committee

Weldon Ihrig, Executive Vice President, Co-chair

Weldon Ihrig was appointed executive vice president of the University of Washington in August of 1996. In this position Ihrig serves as the chief business and financial officer, responsible for the management of all financial and administrative services of the University. He is one of the primary policy-makers for the University as a whole and represents the University in political, business, and civic affairs. Prior to his position at the U.W., he served for six years as vice chancellor for finance and administration for the Oregon University System, which includes seven colleges and universities. His responsibilities in Oregon included planning, administering and monitoring the systems budget, as well as managing investments, computer information systems, telecommunications, legal services, internal auditing, payroll, personnel and employee benefits.

Ihrig received a bachelors degree in electrical engineering (1961) and a masters of business administration (1963) from The Ohio State University. He worked at Ohio State from 1965-81, beginning as assistant registrar for scheduling and systems and rising to the position of vice president for finance in 1981, a position he held until moving to Oregon.

Craig J. Hogan, Vice Provost for Research, Co-chair

Craig J. Hogan was appointed in May 2002 as Vice Provost for Research. A native of Los Angeles, he graduated from Harvard College and went on to King's College, Cambridge, earning his Ph.D. there at the Institute of Astronomy in 1980. He held postdoctoral prize fellowships at the University of Chicago and Caltech, and was a professor at the University of Arizona before moving to the University of Washington in 1990 as a professor in the Astronomy and Physics departments. From 1995 to 2001 he served as Chair of Astronomy, and in 2001-2002 as Divisional Dean of Natural Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences. Hogan's main research interest is astrophysical cosmology. Currently, his theoretical studies center on how to use cosmic background radiation to study the origin of space and time. He is a former member of the High-z Supernova Search Team that discovered the acceleration of the cosmic expansion, and of the LISA International Science Team, which is developing a spacecraft system to detect gravitational radiation. His primer on cosmology, "The Little Book of the Big Bang", is now available in Dutch, Portuguese, German, Italian and Polish translations.

Albert Berger, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education, School of Medicine

Dr. Albert J. Berger, professor of physiology and biophysics, was acting chair of his department in 2000, and has been a UW professor since 1985. He has held numerous national scientific leadership positions, including serving as a member of the Respiratory and Applied Physiology Study Section of the NIH and serving as a reviewer for many national federal programs and private foundations in the areas of research, graduate training and career development.

Berger's own field of research is respiratory neurobiology. His laboratory studies how hypoglossal motoneurons cause the tongue muscle to contract and the role of this activity in speaking, chewing and swallowing. These cells also appear to have a role in normal and abnormal respiratory-related behaviors, such as obstructive sleep apnea. This work is supported by two major NIH grants.

Berger has twice received Javits Neuroscience Investigator Awards. He has also received an NIH Research Career Development Award, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and a Senior International Fellowship from the Forgarty International Center.

He is the author or co-author of 110 publications, including a textbook, Physiology of Respiration, now in its second edition, which he wrote with Dr. Michael Hlastala, UW professor of physiology and biophysics and of medicine.

Berger was the associate editor of the American Journal of Physiology: Lung, Cellular and Molecular Physiology and recently served a three-year term on the editorial board of the Journal of Neurophysiology.

Berger graduated from Cornell University. He earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in physiology from the University of California-San Francisco.

Denice D. Denton, Dean, College of Engineering

Since 1996, Denice D. Denton has served as dean of the University of Washington College of Engineering and a professor in the College's Department of Electrical Engineering. The College of Engineering is one of seven members of ECSEL (Engineering Coalition of Schools for Excellence in Education and Leadership), funded by the National Science Foundation. ECSEL's goals include undertaking a major transformation of the undergraduate engineering curriculum and increasing the diversity of engineering graduates.

Denton is a recipient of the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award (1987-1992) and Digital Equipment Corporation Faculty Grant (1990-1991). In addition, she has received numerous teaching awards. She is chair of the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council Board on Engineering Education and is currently a member of the NAS/NRC Committee on Undergraduate Science Education. Prior to joining the University of Washington, Denton was professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1987 to 1996. She received her B.S. (1982), M.S. (1982), and Ph.D. (1987) degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Michael B. Eisenberg, Dean, Information School

Michael Eisenberg joined the University of Washington as the Director of the School of Library and Information in 1998. His expertise is in use of information and information technology, Internet, information management in learning and teaching, information problem-solving, and critical thinking/information skills development. In 1990, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award, School of Information Science and Policy of the Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, University at Albany. He was also the 1994 recipient of the School Library Media Section/New York Library Association Presidential Award for Professional Achievement.

Eisenberg has a M.L.S. from the State University of New York at Albany (1973) and a Ph.D. in Information Transfer from Syracuse University (1986).

Edward Lazowska, Bill & Melinda Gates Chair, Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Ed Lazowska is Professor and Chair of the Department of Computer Science & Engineering. His research concerns computer systems and computer system performance. He also serves as Chair of the University Advisory Committee on Academic Technology. He has recently served as a member of the Committee on the Deanship of the College of Arts and Sciences, as Chair of the review committee for the Ph.D. program in Molecular Biotechnology, and as a member of the performance review committee for the Dean of Engineering. He was selected to deliver the 1996 University of Washington Annual Faculty Lecture.

Lazowska received his A.B. from Brown University in 1972, and has been at the University of Washington since receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1977.

Ruth M. Mahan, Director, UW Academic Medical Centers (AMC) Academic/Clinical Support and Personnel Policy

Ruth Mahan was appointed Director, UW AMC Academic/Clinical Support and Personnel Policy in September 2001. She joined the University of Washington School of Medicine Dean's Office staff in 1997 as the Associate Director, Management and Finance. In the late 1980's she served as Special Assistant to then President Gerberding. In her position as Director, UW AMC Academic/Clinical Support and Personnel Policy, Mahan oversees an array of School of Medicine legal, affiliation and organizational issues and coordinates with a variety of attorneys who serve as legal counsel for the entities that constitute the Academic Medical Centers. She manages faculty administrative affairs through the Office of Faculty Appointments (promotion, tenure, compensation practice agreements, conflict of interest, employment claims, etc.) for over 5000 paid and unpaid faculty and manages affiliation agreements between the School and various health care plans/organizations. Additionally, Mahan's responsibilities cover personnel policy administration related to executive, professional and classified staff of the UW AMC. She oversees related personnel activities associated with the Office of Medical Staff Appointments (credentialing, appointment to the Medical Staff, etc.).

Mahan received her BA, cum laude, in Political Sciences from Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts in 1979. She then attended the University of Washington Graduate School, completed a Master of Arts but for thesis in Sociocultural Anthropology, 1981-83, and received her Juris Doctor at the UW School of Law in 1986.

Arthur Nowell, Dean, College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences

Arthur Nowell was appointed Dean of the College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences in 1996. Previously he served as Director of the School of Oceanography for nine years. The School was ranked by the National Research Council as one of the three best programs in the U.S. Nowell has also served as Interim President of the Joint Oceanographic Institutions and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences Ocean Studies Board.

Nowell completed undergraduate studies at Trinity College, Cambridge, England and pursued graduate studies at Colorado State University and the University of British Columbia, where he completed his Ph.D. He has authored or co-authored over 50 papers and is currently chair of the Joint Oceanographic Institutions Board of Governors.

Kathleen A. Sellick, Executive Director, UW Medical Center Administration

Kathleen Sellick was appointed Executive Director of the University of Washington Medical Center April 1, 2001. She joined the Medical Center in January 1999 as Associate Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer. In this position she is responsible for providing overall management and direction to the Medical Center and the services it shares with other hospitals in accordance with the UW Academic Medical Center mission. The 450-bed UW Medical Center is widely regarded as one of the nation's top medical centers, and is a leading provider of highly specialized care of patients and consulting services to physicians in the 5-state region known as WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho).

Before coming to Seattle, she served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, California for four years. Earlier, she was Vice President/Administration and Director of Outreach Development for Hoag Memorial Presbyterian Hospital in Newport Beach, California, where she served for eight years. She also worked at American Medical International in Beverly Hills, California, Westgate Medical Center in Denton, Texas, and was administrative resident at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Sellick is a graduate of Arizona State University and received her MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

Lizabeth (Betsy) A Wilson, Director of University Libraries

Betsy Wilson was appointed Director of University Libraries effective January 2001. Previously, she held the position of Associate Director of Libraries for Research and Instructional Services at the University of Washington since 1992. In this capacity, she was responsible for the policy and program development, budget, and overall administration of operations, planning, and personnel in Access Services; Reference and Research Services; Manuscripts, Special Collections, University Archives; 13 branch libraries, and the Odegaard Undergraduate Library. At the UW, Ms. Wilson has lead creative and innovative library and technology services, initiated a culture of assessment of programs and collections, and extended the Libraries outreach and information literacy efforts. She has been a leader of the award-winning UWired program since its inception in 1994.

Wilson holds a BA in Art History and German from Northwestern University (1977) and an MS in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1978) and is the recipient of the 1995 Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian Award for lifetime achievement in teaching excellence and the 2000 Margaret E. Monroe Adult Services Award.