Provost Koonin to step down

After nine years as Caltech’s provost, Steve Koonin will step down on February 2. He will also begin a leave of absence in March from his faculty post as professor of theoretical physics to take a position in industry.

Writing “with an intense sense of personal regret” at Koonin’s departure, President David Baltimore noted in a January 9 e-mail to the campus community that he “could not [have hoped] for a more valuable and talented Provost. . . . Steve and I have had a strong working relationship that dates from my arrival at Caltech in 1997, and over the past six years, I have relied on his insight, energy, innate intelligence and detailed knowledge of Caltech as we have worked to further the Caltech cause.”

Along with serving as its seventh provost, Koonin has had a decades-long association with Caltech that began in his undergraduate days (class of 1972) and resumed when he joined the faculty in 1975, after earning his PhD from MIT. He became full professor in 1981 and served as faculty chair from 1989 to 1991.

A recipient of the ASCIT (Associated Students of the California Institute of Technology) Teaching Award, the Humboldt Senior Scientist Award, and the Department of Energy’s E. O. Lawrence Award in Physics, Koonin is a member of the Council for Foreign Relations and has served as an advisor to the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Defense. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His research interests include theoretical nuclear and computational physics, nuclear astrophysics, and global environmental science.

Koonin’s departure “will leave a tremendous hole in the Institute’s administrative and academic structure,” Baltimore wrote, noting that it will be crucial to continue fulfilling the provost’s key responsibilities without interruption, “as the Institute’s future is dependent upon the ultimate success of these endeavors.”

To that end, he has appointed Professor Edward Stolper as acting provost, effective February 2, while a search committee works to fill the position. Chaired by Professor Ahmed Zewail, the committee, which also includes Professors David Anderson, Peter Bossaerts, Shuki Bruck, Anneila Sargent, and Paul Wennberg, will seek input from the Caltech community in its decision. Also in the interim, Baltimore will resume oversight of Business and Finance, Public Relations, Student Affairs, and the General Counsel, functions that he had delegated to the provost in May.
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