Dean Dan Solomon looks ahead to year two of the new College

Year one of the college of sciences is over. What did you learn?

We knew that bringing together the biological, physical and mathematical sciences made sense, but after seeing the various academic, research and outreach programs begin to fuse, we’re more convinced than ever. Our new Department of Biological Sciences has been a big part of this successful transition, opening up health-related collaborations with others in the College. much work remains, but the organization of this new College provides a foundation for continued success.

What are your year two plans?

Much of year one was about making sure everything worked. now we’ve begun to implement our three-year launch plan, which takes the first steps toward fulfilling our mission. We need to be solving important problems in areas such as health, energy production and environmental sustainability; driving discovery that confronts great intellectual questions; diversifying our student and faculty populations; and preparing future scientists and leaders for tomorrow’s world. The plan also details an expansion of our work in citizen science and science communication. given the grand challenges our world faces, we need to give the next generation of scientists the skills and sense of professional responsibility to be effective communicators of their work to the public. The cover story in this magazine explores the Your Wild Life program based here in the College. it’s one of the nation’s premier citizen science programs.

What are the College’s pressing needs?

Great institutions need great people, but competition for top students and faculty is fierce. So we need the ability to offer more scholarships, fellowships and professorships to these bright scholars and researchers. We also need support for a new signature science building on the Brickyard — Harrelson Hall will be razed to make way for it — that will be the hub of a planned “innovation neighborhood” on north campus. The building will serve as a portal to a science corridor that stretches from SAS Hall to David Clark Labs.

Talk about the College’s entrepreneurship activities.

We’re keen on building a culture of entrepreneurship that fuels economic development. That obviously includes encouraging our faculty to start companies and transfer their research to the marketplace. But we’re also forging more research partner- ships with existing industry, collaborations that have the added benefit of creating more job and internship opportunities for our students. Furthermore, we’re developing a tighter bond with the nC State entrepreneurship initiative that is infusing this university with business-building spirit.

Now the most important question: What’s Neil deGrasse Tyson really like?

I was his on-campus chauffeur for some of his visit in April, so i can now say that neil degrasse Tyson has sat in the front seat of my car. He’s about what you would expect: an incredibly gregarious, funny and intelligent guy who cares a lot about science literacy and the future of our world. What an honor to have him here to celebrate the first year of this College.