>>Face of things to come: staff changes inaugurate a new year

The past year has brought the University of Chicago an abundance of fresh faces, with new professors, administrators, and of course, a president, putting down roots in Hyde Park. But "getting" is only half of the equation; after a year of acquiring new talent, Chicago must give some up. A flurry of December and January announcements of appointments, departures, and reappointments has changed the institutional order once again.

Robert S. Hamada, dean of the Graduate School of Business and the Edward Eagle Brown distinguished service professor of finance, will leave the deanship on July 1 after eight years in the post. An internationally known authority on finance, Hamada joined the school in 1966, winning its first outstanding teacher award in 1970 and the GSB's McKinsey Award for excellence in teaching in 1981. Since taking the helm, he has presided over the opening of the Singapore and Barcelona campuses and an international M.B.A. program at Chicago.

Hamada has also played a role in other GSB initiatives, including raising $111 million in the first 11 months of the GSB's five-year $175 million capital campaign, which includes the financing for a new Hyde Park integrated campus. "I am currently 63 years old and looking forward to a totally different challenge," said Hamada in a letter to the University community. "It's been an honor to have served our institution, of which I have been a part for 35 years."

After serving almost six years as dean of the Biological Sciences Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine and as vice president for medical affairs, Glenn D. Steele will be departing academic medicine for the private sector. "He is leaving the division much stronger than he found it, and the University is indebted to him for that," says University president Don Michael Randel. Steele came to Chicago in 1995 from Harvard University and has been instrumental in bringing together the biological and physical sciences, including helping bring about the Interdivisional Research Building, scheduled to open in 2004. In March 2001 Steele becomes president and CEO of Geisinger Health Systems, the nation's largest rural health maintenance organization.

As the University searches for a permanent replacement for Steele, Bryce Weir, chief of neurosurgery, director of the Brain Research Institute, and the Maurice Goldblatt professor in the departments of surgery and neurology, has been named interim dean of the BSD and the Pritzker School of Medicine and vice president for medical affairs. Weir, a neurosurgeon who joined the faculty in 1992, assumed the interim posts on January 15. His first official act was to appoint Janet D. Rowley, PhB'45, SB'46, MD'48, the Blum-Riese distinguished service professor in the departments of human genetics and medicine, molecular genetics, and cell biology, as interim deputy dean for science, a new position created to oversee basic biological research at the University. With the division since 1962, Rowley has won many awards for her work on recurring chromosome abnormalities in leukemia and lymphoma.

In the Administration Building, name plates are being changed as well. "For 21 years and under three University presidents, Art has offered good counsel, wise analysis, and selfless citizenship to our community," said Randel about Arthur M. Sussman, the University's legal counsel, who is leaving Chicago in February to become vice president and secretary of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. In addition to his work as the University's chief legal officer, Sussman has overseen operations of the Laboratory Schools, maintained the U of C's relationship with Argonne National Laboratory, and lectured at the Law School and the Graduate School of Business. Sussman plans to take a few months off before beginning his work at the Chicago-based foundation in May.

In mid-December, Randel appointed Robert Zimmer, the Max Mason distinguished service professor in mathematics, to be the vice president for research and Argonne National Laboratory. As part of his duties, Zimmer is chairing an interdisciplinary committee investigating the role of computation across the University. Zimmer, who came to Chicago from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1977, will continue as deputy provost, a position he has held since 1998. Zimmer will work with recent appointee Hermann Grunder, the director of Argonne Laboratory, to oversee the University's stewardship of the facility.

Daniel W. Shannon, dean of the Graham School of General Studies, has been named to a second five-year term. Since Shannon became dean in July 1996, the school's enrollment has grown by 13 percent, and nine new certificate programs have been established. Shannon, who came to Chicago from a similar post at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, has also created two study-abroad programs at Oxford and a summer residential study program for high school students. His second term begins on July 1.-C.S.