R. Russell Betts Named Dean of Illinois Institute of Technology College of Science and Letters
Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) President John Anderson today announced the appointment of R. Russell Betts, Ph.D. as dean of IIT College of Science and Letters.
Betts joins IIT from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), where he serves as vice provost for planning and programs and professor of physics. Betts' appointment follows the retirement of F. R. "Buck" McMorris, who has served as dean for the past four years.
"Dr. Betts brings an extensive background in science and academic planning that will be a great asset to both the College of Science and Letters and the university as a whole," said President Anderson.
Betts earned his Ph.D. and Master of Science degrees at the University of Pennsylvania, and Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees from Oxford University. A professor of physics at UIC since 1993, Betts also was a physicist and senior physicist at Argonne National Laboratory from 1979-1999. Prior to that, he served as assistant professor of physics at Yale University where he worked in the A.W.Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory.
Dr. Betts research interests have been wide-ranging in the fields of Atomic, Nuclear and High Energy Physics. His work is well known in the study of cluster structure in atomic nuclei and he is the discoverer of several important phenomena in this field. As spokesman of the APEX experiment, he spearheaded the U.S. effort to resolve one of the most tantalizing problems of atomic and nuclear physics - the well-known "Positron Peak Problem". Most recently, he has led the UIC group in studies of high energy density QCD matter at Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. He is co-author of over 200 articles and book chapters and has delivered more than 50 invited conference and symposium presentations at national and international meetings.
Dr. Betts is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and is an award-winning teacher. He has served as consultant and advisor to national laboratories and national and international funding organizations and conference committees. At UIC he has participated in many department, college and university wide activities including chairing promotion and tenure, conflict of interest and strategic thinking committees. He also participated as one of the two inaugural members in the campus Faculty in Residence Program.
Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting university with more than 7,300 students in engineering, sciences, architecture, psychology, design, humanities, business and law. IIT’s interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum is designed to advance knowledge through research and scholarship, to cultivate invention improving the human condition, and to prepare students from throughout the world for a life of professional achievement, service to society, and individual fulfillment. Visit www.iit.edu.
