Fefferman appointed to five-year PSD deanship

Robert Fefferman

Provost Richard Saller announced this week the appointment of mathematician Robert Fefferman as Dean of the Physical Sciences Division at the University. Fefferman will serve a five-year term as dean beginning Tuesday, July 1. He succeeds David Oxtoby, who is leaving the University to become president of Pomona College in Claremont, Calif.

“We are delighted that Bob has accepted the job and look forward to working with him to continue the excellence of the physical sciences at Chicago,” Saller said.

Fefferman, the Louis Block Professor in Mathematics, specializes in harmonic analysis, partial differential equations and probability theory. He joined the Chicago faculty in 1975. His honors include the University’s Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and a fellowship with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. He served as Chairman of the Mathematics Department from 1995 to 2001.

In addition to his teaching and research, Fefferman also has been active in mathematics education outreach, having worked with public school teachers for the past 15 years at all levels, from elementary school through high school.

Fefferman received his B.S. in mathematics from the University of Maryland in 1972 and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1975.