Physics Professor Wolfgang Losert Named College's Associate Dean for Research, Faculty Affairs and Graduate Education
Professor Wolfgang Losert has been named associate dean for research, faculty affairs and graduate education in the University of Maryland’s College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (CMNS) effective July 1, 2016. Losert had been serving as interim associate dean for research since July 1, 2014 and interim associate dean for faculty affairs and graduate education since August 15, 2015.
Losert has appointments in physics, the Institute for Physical Science and Technology, and the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics. In his research, Losert aims to discover emergent dynamic properties of complex systems at the interface of physics and biology, with a focus on collective migration and activity of cells. His research is funded by a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative program award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, a Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) initiative grant from the National Institutes of Health, and additional grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Within CMNS and the broader scientific community, Losert actively fosters cross-disciplinary interactions and new research and educational opportunities. He is part of a trans-university initiative of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (called NEXUS) that is developing new science and math courses for biology majors and pre-health care students that can serve as a national model. He helped initiate and now leads the NCI-UMD Partnership for Integrative Cancer Research, which provides UMD faculty members and graduate students the opportunity to tackle pressing problems in cancer research in collaboration with National Cancer Institute experts. Previously, Losert served as chair of the American Physical Society’s Division of Biological Physics, director of UMD’s interdisciplinary biophysics graduate program and chair of the University Senate Educational Affairs Committee.