Solomon Honored for Lifetime Achievement by Council on the Status of Women

Dr. Daniel Solomon, dean of the College of Sciences, has been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by NC State’s Council on the Status of Women for his work to increase the presence of female students, faculty and staff in STEM fields and academic leadership at the university.

The award was presented on Feb. 23 at the Council’s annual Sisterhood Dinner, which celebrates the contributions and accomplishments of NC State women.

Solomon announced in September that he was stepping down as dean of the College, effective July 1, 2015. He has been a dean at NC State since 2000, serving in that capacity for 13 years in the former College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (PAMS). In 2013, he became the inaugural dean of the College of Sciences.

During his 34 years as an administrator at NC State, Solomon has been a driving force in diversifying the sciences. He has promoted, developed or led a wide array of activities designed to diversify the sciences workforce pipeline, student body and faculty; create a more inclusive and welcoming community; and enhance work-life balance.

Under Solomon’s leadership, the College has made great strides toward hiring more women faculty and including more women in its leadership. Three of the four associate deans in the College are women, as are two of its six department heads. While Solomon was dean of PAMS, the number of tenured and tenure-track female faculty nearly doubled. And when SAS Hall, which houses the departments of Mathematics and Statistics, opened in 2009, it was the first building on campus with a lactation room. Today NC State has 16 on campus.

Solomon began his faculty career in 1968 at Cornell University, moving through the ranks to become professor of biological statistics and heading the Biometrics Unit there. He came to NC State in 1981 as head of the Department of Statistics. He held that position until 1993, when he joined the PAMS administration as associate dean for academic affairs.

Solomon is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and a 2010 winner of its Founders Award. He was a key figure in the founding of the National Institute of Statistical Sciences, and continues to serve in various capacities on its board of trustees. He currently chairs the Governing Board of the National Science Foundation’s Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute based in Research Triangle Park.

Solomon earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Florida State University in 1962. He went on to earn master’s and doctoral degrees in mathematical statistics in 1964 and 1968, respectively, also from Florida State.

(Photo courtesy of OIED Communications)