UW-Madison announces four finalists for university provost

A committee made up of University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty, staff and students announced four finalists for the position of university provost, according to a Wednesday press release.

The provost’s responsibilities include overseeing and managing all the academic, student and faculty life on campus. Paul Deluca, the exiting provost, announced he would step down from and return to the faculty in June 2013.

The finalists are:

• Robert Blouin is the dean of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Eshelman School of Pharmacy. He researches pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism at UNC.

• Sarah Mangelsdorf holds a Ph.D. in child psychology and is the dean of the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. She is currently a psychology professor at Northwestern University.

• Katherine Newman is a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University interested in socioeconomic research.

• Julie Underwood is the dean of the UW-Madison School of Education and served as interim UW-Madison provost in 2009.

Each candidate will give presentations throughout March that will be free and open to the public. The presentations will also be posted to the Provost Search website and allow viewer feedback.