Page appointed dean of College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Robert E. Page Jr., Foundation Professor and dean of the School of Life Sciences (SOLS), has been appointed vice provost and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) effective July 1, ASU Provost and Executive Vice President Elizabeth D. Capaldi announced.

Page joined ASU in July 2004 as founding director of the School of Life Sciences, an academic unit within CLAS. He is an entomologist whose research background is in behavior and population genetics with a focus on the evolution of complex social behavior, notably honeybees.

”Rob Page has a track record of academic, scientific and administrative excellence and has exhibited strategic vision in organizing faculties into a school without disciplinary boundaries,” said ASU President Michael M. Crow. “That is the type of experience and achievement that makes him ideally suited to head the university’s core academic unit.”

Added Provost Capaldi, “Rob has been a strong leader of one of the largest units in CLAS and shown he can bridge many disciplines, bring faculty together, innovate in curriculum and instruction, and build excellence.”

The process of replacing Page with a director for SOLS will begin immediately.

Page’s responsibilities will include student academic affairs, faculty development, promotion of research, and the planning and implementation of degree programs for a college that has nearly 18,000 undergraduate and more than 2,500 graduate students. He will also be responsible for budgeting, planning, fundraising and personnel decisions.

The college’s all-funds budget for the current fiscal year is $282 million, and research expenditures in the college for the 12-month period ending Jan. 31 were in excess of $112 million.

“I have been privileged this past seven years to be part of the transformation of Arizona State University under President Crow’s vision and leadership,” said Page. “The School of Life Sciences was the first experiment in the new school-centric model and offered many challenges and rewards. I look forward to taking what I have learned and advancing the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, certainly one of the largest and most complex colleges, anywhere.”

Page, who has a doctorate in entomology from the University of California, Davis, was chair of the department of entomology there for five years, before coming to ASU. His first academic post was as an assistant professor at Ohio State University.

An internationally recognized scholar, Page is an elected foreign member of the Brazilian Academy of Science, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the German National Academy of Sciences-Leopoldina.

His awards include the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award, the highest honor given by the German Government to foreign scientists. His publications include more than 200 scientific papers, nine general media articles, 23 book chapters and review articles; he is the co-editor of three books and co-author of a textbook.

Page will replace Quentin Wheeler, who has been a university vice president and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences since 2006. Wheeler, who is also director of the International Institute for Species Exploration at ASU, will return to the faculty in a tenured position.

“On behalf of President Crow and myself, I wish to thank Dean Wheeler for his years of excellent service and for providing a platform from which the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences can continue to advance as one of the most outstanding liberal arts colleges in the country,” said Capaldi.