Dr. Gillian Small Appointed Vice Chancellor for Research
The Board of Trustees of The City University of New York has appointed Dr. Gillian Small to the new position of Vice Chancellor for Research. Chancellor Goldstein stated: “Dr. Small is a distinguished research scholar and administrator who has been serving as the University Dean for Research since 2003. She is eminently qualified to advance CUNY’s science agenda and provide inspired leadership for its research and technology development.” The Chancellor has proclaimed 2005 through 2015 as “The Decade of Science,” which includes investing over $11 billion in constructing and modernizing the University’s science facilities.”
In her new post, Dr. Small will set strategy for the University’s research programs with a view toward fostering visionary initiatives and new models of participation, encouraging information sharing, and connecting research and scholarly activities with emerging opportunities. Central to this will be the recruitment of distinguished research faculty across many disciplines; supporting faculty to enable them to achieve eminence in research and scholarship; and obtaining significant funding for recruitment and research instrumentation.
Her major responsibilities include planning extensive new state-of-the-art science facilities as part of CUNY’s Decade of Science, such as the development of the CUNY-wide Advanced Science Research Center, to be located on the campus of City College. The Center will house high-end core facilities for use by CUNY scientists and support cutting-edge research in photonics, nanoscience, structural biology, neuroscience and environmental sensing.
Dr. Small will also seek to enhance student involvement in research through educational programs, research participation and inclusion of CUNY research in curricula on a broad basis. She will manage a post-doctoral fellowship program, and work to facilitate the involvement of talented researchers outside the CUNY community. Dr. Small will also have responsibility for overseeing intellectual property and commercialization of products of University research; developing relationships with outside research organizations, industry, governmental and non-governmental funding sources; and enhancing CUNY’s contribution to New York City’s economic development.
Dr. Small said: “The hallmark of a great university such as CUNY is excellence in teaching, research, and public service. This is an extraordinarily exciting time as the University undergoes a dramatic expansion of its research facilities and programs during the Decade of Science. I welcome the opportunity to enhance and expand CUNY’s world-class research initiatives.”
Dr. Gillian Small joined CUNY in 2001 as Associate Dean for Research. Since 2003 she has served as University Dean for Research, where she has guided and supported CUNY’s research initiatives, ensured compliance with federal regulations for research, and had overall responsibility for supporting the University’s intellectual property portfolio. She is a tenured faculty member in the biology department at The City College.
Dr. Small received her Ph.D. in the Biological Sciences in 1983 from the University of Wolverhampton in England. She came to the US in 1985 to perform research at the Rockefeller University in New York, in the department of Nobel Laureate Dr. Christian DeDuve. Her research focus is organelle biogenesis and molecular regulation of lipid metabolism, and she has been consistently funded over a 20-year period by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the American Heart Association. She has published widely in these areas and, in recognition of her research, was named an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association (1992-1997). Dr. Small has presented her research at both national and international conferences, including as invited speaker at the 1997 Nobel Conference on “Metabolic Functions, Proliferation and Diseases of Peroxisomes” in Sweden.
In 1988 she joined the faculty at the University of Florida where she established her independent research program. In 1992 Dr. Small returned to New York as a faculty member at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where she directed a research laboratory as well as being Director of the interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology.
The City University of New York is the nation’s largest urban public university. Founded in New York City in 1847 as the Free Academy, CUNY comprises 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E. Macaulay Honors College at CUNY, the Graduate School and University Center, the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, the CUNY School of Law, the CUNY School of Professional Studies and the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education. The University serves more than 231,000 degree-credit students and more than 231,000 adult, continuing and professional education students. College Now, the University’s academic enrichment program for 32,500 high school students, is offered at CUNY campuses and more than 300 high schools throughout the five boroughs of the City of New York. The University offers online baccalaureate degrees through the School of Professional Studies and individualized baccalaureate through the CUNY Baccalaureate Degree. The University Teacher Academy provides free tuition for highly motivated mathematics and science majors who seek teaching careers in the city.#
