Sciences Begins 2015-16 With Momentum
The College of Sciences has entered its third year with a new dean, a strong incoming class, dynamic research programs and considerable fundraising momentum.
Joining the College in September was Dr. William Ditto, the College’s new dean. Ditto is a physicist who spent the past four years as dean of the College of Natural Sciences at Hawaii’s flagship public university, the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He has a rich background in research, innovation, entrepreneurship and academic administration.
“The College of Sciences is on a trajectory toward worldwide prominence,” Ditto said in a letter to the College’s students, faculty, staff and alumni. “I can’t wait to take that journey with you.”
The College’s academic community now includes more than 560 freshmen who arrived on campus this fall, part of a total university class of 4,270 that’s the largest freshman group in North Carolina. The College’s first-year class includes 25 valedictorians and salutatorians, and its members averaged 1254 on the math and critical reading portions of the SAT. The class had a weighted high school grade point average of 4.5, and 51 percent were in the top 10 percent of their high school classes.
The College continued to be one of the most research-intensive units at NC State, with $50 million in research expenditures in 2014-15. During that time, two faculty won National Science Foundation CAREER Awards, considered some of the nation’s top honors for young science faculty. And Sciences faculty lead the Center for Human Health and the Environment, which recently received a $6.5 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to investigate the effects of environmental factors on human health.
Another 2014-15 highlight was the substantial growth in fundraising. Gifts and new commitments, including several donations of more than $100,000, totaled $7 million, up 24 percent from the previous year’s record total.
Success stories included raising more than $2.3 million for the College’s signature Daniel L. Solomon Scholars Program from November 2014 — when the program was renamed in honor of inaugural dean Dan Solomon — to June 30, 2015. The total raised since the program’s inception now stands at $5 million.
And more than 180 donors either joined or renewed their memberships in the Dean’s Circle, the College’s leadership annual giving society. That represents a 17 percent increase from the previous year.
The College of Sciences launched on July 1, 2013, bringing together NC State people and programs in the biological, mathematical and physical sciences. The arrangement channeled NC State’s strengths in the basic sciences into a more comprehensive college dedicated to solving grand societal problems and answering the toughest intellectual questions.
