Rice Names Matthews Dean

Rice Names Matthews Dean

BY MICHAEL
CINELLI

Rice News Staff

May 7, 1998

Rice University biochemistry professor Kathleen S.
Matthews has been named dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences
effective July 1, 1998, Rice President Malcolm Gillis and Provost
David Auston announced today.

Matthews, who joined the Rice faculty in 1972 as
an assistant professor of biochemistry, holds the Stewart Memorial
Professor of Biochemistry chair. She is associate editor of the
Journal of Biological Chemistry and was elected a Fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1996.

Matthews succeeds James L. Kinsey, who completed a
10-year term as dean of the Wiess School. Kinsey will continue to
teach and conduct research at Rice as the D.R. Bullard-Welch
Foundation Professor of Science in the chemistry department.

“Professor Matthews is one of those rare
individuals who has developed her gifts to the fullest in everything
she has attempted,” Gillis said. “Not only is she a renowned scholar,
but she is also a celebrated teacher of undergraduates, superb mentor
of undergraduates.

“On top of all that, she has been able to hone her
organizational and administrative skills to a very fine point. Few
academicians possess all these attributes; fewer still have
cultivated them as well as Professor Matthews. She is the perfect
person to build upon Jim Kinsey’s decade of enhancements in natural
sciences.”

Matthews earned an undergraduate degree from the
University of Texas and a doc-torate from the University of
California-Berkeley. Her research interests include the chemistry and
molecular biology of DNA-binding proteins, studies on repressor
proteins from Escherichia coli, including chemical modification,
spectroscopy and studies on immune function and metabolism.

“I am extremely pleased that Kathy has accepted
our offer to be the next dean of the Wiess School of Natural
Sciences,” Auston said. “She brings a unique blend of experience,
energy, enthusiasm, leadership and vision to this responsibility. She
is a most worthy successor to Jim Kinsey. The search committee and
its chair, Fred Rudolph, deserve to be congratulated for conducting
an outstanding search.”

Matthews has earned many teaching awards and has
served on a number of aca-demic and professional panels and
committees, including a review panel for the Howard Hughes Medical
Institute Research Resources Program for Medical Schools, and the
National Science Foundation Advisory Committee. Matthews served as
chair of the biochemistry and cell biology department for eight
years, during a period of expansion. Last year, she chaired the
Steering Committee in developing a Strategic Plan for the Wiess
School of Natural Sciences.

“There’s no question in my mind that Kathy was far
and away the best choice for this position, although there were some
extremely outstanding outside candidates,” Kinsey said. “Kathy is
someone whom I’ve worked very closely with during my time here and
I’ve always been impressed with her ability, wisdom, tact and
effectiveness. I think she’s perfectly suited for the job. She is one
of our very best teachers, she’s one of our most productive and
original researchers, she runs a sizable research program, and she’s
an editor of a major journal in her field. On top of that, she has
had a lot of hands-on experience with being an administrator at
Rice.”

The selection of Matthews to succeed Kinsey came
after an extensive search by a committee chaired by Rudolph,
professor of biochemistry and cell biology at Rice.

“We had a good number of outside applicants,”
Rudolph said, “and four people who we all felt very good about were
recommended to the president and the provost. Kathy has extremely
good administrative skills, she cares deeply about the university,
and quality is always first and foremost, which is where we need to
be now.”

For related information visit the following Web
site:

Wiess School of Natural Sciences: http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~nsci/