University of Cincinnati Announces New Dean of Graduate School 

The University of Cincinnati’s Neville Pinto has been appointed the new vice provost and dean of the Graduate School, effective Sept. 1, 2006. In this position, he will oversee graduate education at the university.

Pinto, a professor of chemical engineering, has previously served as assistant dean for graduate education in the

College of Engineering

from 2002-06. Most recently, he has also served as interim associate dean of the Graduate School. He was chair of the

Department of Chemical Engineering

from 1994-97.

Throughout his distinguished career at the university, Dean Pinto has advised and mentored numerous graduate students, both on the master’s and doctoral levels. His commitment to student learning has earned him the UC College of Engineering’s premier teaching awards: the Neal Wandmacher Award and the Engineering Tribunal Teaching Award.

Dean Pinto is also a committed researcher. His research efforts, funded primarily by competitive state and federal grants, have expanded in the past decade and now include interdisciplinary research in the areas of bioengineering and environmental engineering.

In his new role, Dean Pinto states he will pursue continued excellence in education for UC’s graduate students while also encouraging interdisciplinary graduate research to address real-world industrial and social problems at the local, regional and national levels. Says Dean Pinto, “As a teacher who’s been in the trenches, I understand the importance of developing excellent graduate program curricula and graduate research to provide our students with a superior education. And, as we move forward in developing and implementing a strategic plan for the Graduate School, I will focus on using the enormous intellectual resources on campus, throughout all our colleges, to help achieve our goals.”

Dean Pinto predicts that such efforts, in alignment with the university’s UC|21 academic plan for excellence, will raise the profile of UC’s graduate programs throughout the region and nationally. “We’re already rooted in scholarship,” he says. “Now, we need to more fully translate our research and scholarly efforts toward needs both within and outside of the university.”

Dean Pinto’s appointment was announced by Tony Perzigian, UC provost, who says, “Dr. Pinto brings to the position an integrated vision for advancing the local, national and international standing of the Graduate School through strategic alignments between undergraduate and graduate programs, graduate program reviews and benchmarking, and interdisciplinary teaching and research collaborations between programs.”

This appointment, according to Perzigian, will help the university continue its rise among America’s premier research institutions. For instance, federally funded research at UC jumped by more than 23 percent in 2003, one of the highest percentage increases among the top 100 institutions listed in the latest annual report from the National Science Foundation. UC is ranked 42nd among U.S. universities in federal research expenditures – up from 46th in 2002 – and is ranked 22nd among public universities alone.

In the NSF rankings, UC beats out such institutions as Princeton University, the University of Virginia, Indiana University, Michigan State University, Purdue University and the University of Kentucky.