Dear College of Science Faculty and Staff,
Thank you to those of you who attended my talk this Wednesday, ‘Together, we are Building the Good Power of Science’ as part of my five-year review as your Dean. It was a pleasure to have the time to lay out where we started when I joined the College of Science, where we are now and where we envision going in the next five years. If you missed it, here is the recording.
We started on a strong pathway. Where we are now is even more impressive, with outstanding and innovative accomplishments we have made together. And the Vision for the College of Science in the next five years is exciting and important. I was able to state this Vision in the context of our Strategic Plan, that supports the university Academic Plan. As I’ve said, the many goals in the plan helped lay out our thoughts, but it’s a living plan, waiting to be interpreted and expanded by your creative, brilliant ideas.
I was proud to explain our unique framing of the Good Power of Science to all who attended. This began as a tagline and has become a deeply important landscape across the College. The Good Power of Science encourages that our research will have benefit to society, even far in the future; that it will be performed ethically and responsibly, with honest reporting of data; and that all our students and trainees will be educated in responsible, ethical principles.
In presenting our Vision, I packed in a wide spread of points. Our commitment to be ‘A Diverse College where Everyone Belongs’ imbues everything we do. Some points may seem obvious, like ‘continued revenue growth’ and ‘increase research funding and awards’, ‘extensive communications for recruitment and reputation’, ‘ensure strong Coop placements’. But we need to state these and implement them, as they are a basis for our success. Some intriguing new points can be bundled across all levels of students: for example, ‘using AI to augment and evolve how we teach’ or ‘ensuring that all COS students have AI competency’.
In our so exciting, anything is possible research portfolio, I emphasized that almost all our research is collaborative and cross-disciplinary. Much of it already uses AI, and the new generative AI tools augment this, and will open novel directions. We are focusing on leadership in crucial fields with the added outcome of building our reputation. I talked about future faculty hires who would have joint appointments with industry, and our commitment to grow industry connections. And I explored how some of the innovative initiatives we’ve begun are leading us into the Future. Our groundbreaking INVEST, accelerated faculty hiring program for example, contributing to more than 100 truly exceptional new faculty hires in four years. And our truly unique vision of PhD training that is empowering students with professionalism, cross-disciplinary research acumen and insight into a huge spread of future career options.
At the end, I presented a collation of where we see the College of Science expanding across the Northeastern Global University, with a broad set of research and education programs. Where we are going has some excellent clarity, building on present success, with some exciting mystery. For no matter how we plan, we cannot be sure of the future. We will read out our articulated Vision, while being open to embrace the new. I’m confident we will exceed our Visionary Goals.
And here’s the most important point. It’s what I shared at our very first Community Meeting on June 10, 2020. I emphasized that our core mission was more valuable and powerful than ever. That Universities are humankind’s greatest, most wonderful inventions: places to uncover, store, apply and teach knowledge. That the Power of Science (not yet the ‘Good Power of Science’) was greater than ever, able to address practical challenges and fundamental workings of our planet and the universe. That Science education promotes a huge spread of career options. That was how we started together, four and one third years ago. Look how far we’ve come! Congratulations to everyone in the College of Science for your outstanding work in education, research and administration. Thank you for your partnership, and for helping build our strong, effective Community. Together, we’re helping light the brilliant future of Northeastern University.
To our Jewish College of Science members observing Yom Kippur, Gmar tov.
Warm wishes to everyone.