Science Administration

A distinguished earth scientist, Dr. Garzione earned a doctorate in geosciences from the University of Arizona. Her research interests include the interaction between climate and tectonics, stable isotopes in terrestrial paleoclimate-paleoenvironmental studies, and sedimentary basin evolution and tectonic history of mountain belts. Dr. Garzione was an early pioneer of methods to estimate the past elevations of mountain belts, which have allowed scientists to understand the timeframes and geodynamic processes that build mountains and the role that mountain belts play in the evolution of regional and global climate. Her research focuses on the interface between the tectonics and climate systems in the Andes and the Himalaya-Tibetan mountain belts. In 2020, the Society for Sedimentary Geology awarded Dr. Garzione the Dickinson Medal for a mid-career scientist whose research has contributed to major shifts in scientific thinking. In 2016, she was named the Helen F. and Fred H. Gowen Endowed Professor at the University of Rochester. Dr. Garzione’s work in teaching earned her the Goergen Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching at the University of Rochester. Other honors she has received include the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists from The New York Academy of Sciences and the Young Scientist Award (Donath Medal) from The Geological Society of America. Dr. Garzione joins the University of Arizona from the Rochester Institute of Technology, where she serves as associate provost for faculty affairs. In this capacity, she focused on faculty development and retention of strong research-oriented faculty, while sustaining teaching excellence. Dr. Garzione was responsible for developing policies and best practices to support faculty recruitment, onboarding, promotion and tenure, and retention. In her role at RIT, Dr. Garzione developed a Department Chair Leadership Development Series in collaboration with department chairs and Human Resources. Recently, Dr. Garzione has also supported critical planning efforts related to COVID-19 and with adapting policy and process frameworks to address COVID-related issues. Dr. Garzione launched several innovative initiatives during COVID-19 to help minimize the impacts on the institution and its faculty, staff and students. For example, the College Course Advancement Team at RIT coordinates faculty representatives working with the Innovation Learning Institute to share best practices and tools with faculty for online and hybrid online and in-person teaching. Dr. Garzione previously served as the founding director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the University of Rochester. She assisted in establishing the center, which captured the intersection between climate change, energy sustainability, and environmental and public health. As chair of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Rochester, Dr. Garzione extended faculty strengths from primarily traditional Earth-centered disciplines to ocean, atmosphere and Earth system modeling. Research expenditures more than tripled under Dr. Garzione’s leadership as department chair.

Elliott Cheu is the interim Dean of the College of Science and a Distinguished Professor of Physics at the University of Arizona. He started his academic career at Stanford University, where he majored in physics. While at Stanford, he participated in research at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), which piqued his interest in understanding the most fundamental elements of the Universe. This interest next led him to Cornell University where he obtained his Ph.D. in physics, with an emphasis on particle physics. After graduate school, Elliott obtained the Robert R. McCormick Fellowship at the University of Chicago, working on the KTeV experiment. This experiment was the first to discover a phenomenon called direct CP violation, which demonstrated the difference between matter and anti-matter. In 1996 Elliott moved to the University of Arizona, and has been here ever since. He currently performs research at the Large Hadron Collider, searching for new phenomena related to dark matter.

Joaquin Ruiz received his B.S. in Geology and B.S. in Chemistry at the University of Miami in 1977. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Michigan in 1980 and 1983, respectively. From 1982 to 1983 he was Assistant Professor at the University of Miami. In 1983 he joined the University of Arizona Geosciences Department as Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1989 and Professor in 1993. He served as head of the Department of Geosciences from 1995 to 2000. He was appointed Dean of the College of Science in 2000, Executive Dean of the Colleges of Letters, Arts and Science in 2009, and Vice President for Innovation in 2013. Dr. Ruiz is past President of the Geological Society of America (2010-2011). He is also a Fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists, and a member of the American Geophysical Union, the American Chemical Society, the Geochemical Society, and the National Research Council of the National Academies of Science. He is a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences and the Governing Board of the Instituto Nacional de Astronomia, Optica y Electronica in Mexico. He has served as Secretary of the Volcanology Section of the American Geophysical Union, Councillor of the Geological Society of America, and as a National Science Foundation Panel Member for the Instrumentation and Facilities Program and the Centers for Excellence in Science and Technology Program. He has served as Associate Editor of the American Journal of Science, Geology, ReVista, and Geofísica International of the Institute of Geology, UNAM. As a scientist with equal abilities in chemistry and in geology, Dr. Ruiz addresses many first-order problems in the Earth Sciences, such as the development of new isotope systems for studying ore deposits and the tectonic processes involved in the growth and evolution of Mexico. His research team addresses problems ranging from the origins of life to present-day climate change.