Dr. J. Murray Gibson was named the founding dean of the new College of Science, according to a university press release. Gibson, who currently works at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois as the associate laboratory director and the director of advanced photon source, will take over the dean post Oct. 1.

The College of Science is one of three new colleges – along with the College of Social Sciences and Humanities and the College of Arts, Media and Design – that will become operational this fall. The university announced last summer the decision to dissolve and divide the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and College of Criminal Justice (CCJ) into the three smaller colleges.

Dean search committees were formed in October, and Provost Stephen Director said in an e-mail to faculty, staff and students on Oct. 17 that the chosen deans would be announced by July 1.

Through his work at Argonne National Laboratory, located in Illinois as part of the US Department of Energy, Gibson studies the structures of materials and processes at the atomic scale, according to his biography on the Argonne website, (www.anl.gov).

“The new College of Science will play a central role as Northeastern University pursues research across its primary themes of health, security and sustainability,” President Joseph Aoun said in the press release. “Dr. J. Murray Gibson has a proven track record of establishing global partnerships and working across disciplines.”

Gibson holds adjunct faculty positions at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign and Northwestern University, according to the release. He has published more than 180 journal papers and presented at more than 120 invited conferences. He holds a bachelors of science in natural philosophy from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Cambridge, England.

His research is mainly on advanced photon source, the brightest source of x-rays in the western hemisphere, which is used to study the structures of materials and processes at the atomic scale. With his guidance, this has emerged as the most productive source of protein structures in the world and is a leader in x-ray studies of materials under extreme conditions.

“J. Murray Gibson is an exceptional scientist and scholar with an outstanding international reputation,” Director said in a press release. “His accomplishments at the one of the world’s most prestigious scientific laboratories make him the perfect candidate to lead our new College of Science.”