Dear Colleagues,

i am pleased to announce that Professor and Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy Umar Mohideen has agreed to serve as Divisional Dean of Physical Sciences and Mathematics for the college, effective July 1, 2016. He will replace Professor of Chemistry Cindy Larive, who has been chosen to serve the university as Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education.

We congratulate Prof. Larive on her appointment and know the university’s undergraduate programs will thrive through her distinguished leadership. We also thank her for her service to the college as divisional dean and in her many other former roles in the Department of Chemistry.

Prof. Mohideen joined the Department of Physics and Astronomy as an assistant professor in 1992 and was promoted to associate professor is 2000 and full professor in 2002. He has served as department chair since 2012 and his successor will be announced soon.

Prof. Mohideen’s research focuses on experimental condensed matter physics. He earned his Ph.D. in physics at Columbia University in 1992 and served as a post-doctoral fellow at AT&T Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey, before his appointment at UCR. You can learn more about his distinguished academic record here:

https://www.physics.ucr.edu/faculty

He is a fellow of the American Physical Society (2004) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2006) and received the Distinguished Campus Service Award from the Riverside Division of the Academic Senate in 2014.

The Academic Senate’s citation for the award reads, in part:

Professor Mohideen has performed significant service to the campus, most notably in his roles as graduate advisor for the Department of Physics and Astronomy and as a member of the Academic Senate’s Committee on Planning and Budget. Professor Mohideen is the current Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, having previously served as Vice Chair and on numerous policy, planning, program, teaching, colloquium, and recruitment committees.

As Graduate Advisor for admissions between 2002 and 2004, Professor Mohideen increased the number of graduate students in the Department from 42 to 74 and in his subsequent term as Graduate Advisor for enrolled students, improved the retention rate from less than 50% to nearly 80%. As lead evaluator for enrolled students (2004-2008) and non-Chinese international applications (2008-present), he has evaluated up to half of all enrolled students and two-thirds of applications on an annual basis.

At a Senate level, Professor Mohideen served on the Committee on Planning and Budget during the global recession and a time of major budget cuts. Through a detailed analysis of the whole campus budget, the Committee were able to identify the exact dollar amount in budget cuts that could be sustained without damaging the teaching mission of CHASS, CNAS and BCOE, limiting the eventual cuts.

We are deeply appreciative of Prof. Mohideen’s ongoing service to UCR and to CNAS in his new role as divisional dean. In addition to his faculty office, after July 1, he can be reached in the Office of the Dean, Geology Building 2258.

Kathryn Uhrich, Ph.D.
Dean, College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences
Professor, Chemistry