Hazel Sive named associate dean of MIT School of Science

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Marc Kastner has announced the appointment of Whitehead Member and biology professor Hazel Sive to the position of associate dean for the School of Science, effective July 1. Sive will be the first associate dean in the School’s history.  In her new role she will focus on educational issues and initiatives.

“I am delighted that Professor Sive has agreed to be the first associate dean of the School of Science,” said Kastner, who will become the dean of the School of Science on July 1. “She brings a passionate commitment to undergraduate education and is especially dedicated to expanding international educational opportunities for our students.  I think she and I will work well together in addressing many challenges facing the School.”

Sive is currently chair of the undergraduate program in the department of biology. "Hazel has done an outstanding job running the undergraduate program in biology—she has good ideas and is very effective in bringing them to fruition,” commented Professor Chris Kaiser, department head. “I look forward to working with her on educational initiatives in the School of Science in her new role as associate dean."

Sive will continue to run an active research program at Whitehead that focuses on two major topics: development of the extreme anterior (front) of the embryo, and development of the nervous system, including the genetic basis for formation of correct brain structure. She uses frogs and zebrafish to probe these basic processes, which give insight into human birth defects and mental health disorders.

“I am very privileged to be a Member of the Whitehead Institute and a professor at MIT,” Sive remarked, “and to be able to perform research in an environment where everything seems possible. I feel privileged to teach and mentor our talented undergraduates, graduate students and postdocs. And I feel privileged to serve MIT further by helping to set directions for the School of Science.”

The appointment will strengthen the very close and productive ties between Whitehead and MIT, Sive emphasized. “Whitehead and MIT have been inextricably linked for me since the day I arrived,” she said. “Our connection with MIT is very strong and important in both directions. Whitehead Members have close research connections with MIT, teach undergraduates and graduate students, and serve on MIT committees.”

In addition to her research and departmental activities, Sive is program director for a new MIT/South Africa Program.  Previously, she served as the co-chair of the MIT Global Education and Opportunities Committee and chair of the Committee on Student Life at MIT.  She serves on National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation grant review panels, as a journal editor and on the Board of the American Association of Anatomists.  

Sive earned her PhD from Rockefeller University in 1986, and performed postdoctoral research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, in Seattle.  She was named a Searle Scholar and received a National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award. She arrived at MIT and Whitehead in 1991.

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