President Steven Leath has reappointed senior vice president and provost Jonathan Wickert to a second five-year term, effective July 30, 2017.
Wickert
Wickert became Iowa State's provost on July 30, 2012, following a national search. At the time, he was completing his third year as dean of the Engineering college (2009-12).
"I am pleased Dr. Wickert has agreed to serve for another five years as senior vice president and provost," Leath said. "He has been instrumental in our pursuit to advance Iowa State's academic programs, attract and retain top faculty, and enhance our scholarly reputation. We've made great progress, and with Dr. Wickert's leadership, we will continue to move Iowa State's academic mission forward."
Highlights of Wickert's first term in the senior VP/provost role include:
- Ensuring the continued quality of undergraduate and graduate programs in a time of record enrollments
- Hiring more than 400 tenured and tenure-eligible faculty under a presidential initiative to build the quality and ranks of ISU’s faculty
- Investing in the creativity and scholarship of faculty, which has produced record levels of sponsored research funding
- Encouraging collaboration across the university community to boost graduation rates and maintain a 95 percent job placement rate
Wickert currently is the lead investigator on a 16-school Midwestern alliance focused on increasing the quality and quantity of students completing STEM programs and the quantity of underrepresented students who pursue graduate degrees. A $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation supports the project.
"It’s a great privilege to serve as Iowa State’s provost, and I am grateful for the opportunity to continue in the role," Wickert said. "We have celebrated numerous accomplishments over the past four-plus years, enabled by outstanding students, faculty and staff, and strongly supported by President Leath and the Board of Regents. I look forward to the next five years and further progress in moving Iowa State forward.”
Wickert is a professor of mechanical engineering and came to Iowa State in 2007 as chair of that department. Previously, he served 17 years on the mechanical engineering faculty at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh.
