UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Daniel Larson, Verne Willaman dean of Penn State’s Eberly College of Science, will leave the University in January 2015 to become the founding chancellor of Yachay University, the first research university in Ecuador. An interim dean will be announced soon and a search for his successor begins immediately.
Yachay University, also known as Yachay Tech, aspires to become a leading global research university in the basic and applied sciences in Ecuador and beyond. Yachay Tech is being built as the core of the new Yachay City, the first planned city in Latin America whose purpose is to become the engine powering science, technology, research and innovation. As chancellor, Larson will be the chief academic officer. His responsibilities will include hiring the deans, department heads and faculty members, as well as establishing the academic directions of the new university.
“It’s no surprise that Dan Larson has been tapped to build the foundation of an institution expected to be the hub of innovation and research for a nation,” said Penn State President Eric Barron. “Dean Larson has been a driving force in the rise in national rankings of Penn State’s science research, which in turn has had an enhancing effect on the education our students receive. We are sorry to see him go, but understand the attraction of this tremendous opportunity.”
Larson joined Penn State in 1998 as dean of the Eberly College of Science. Since then, he has transformed the college into one ranked at the top of the Big Ten Conference, among the top 10 U.S. science colleges overall and one of the top two public science colleges in the United States. He accomplished these improvements while simultaneously advancing instruction performance, increasing the number of underrepresented minorities and women on the faculty and in leadership positions and hosting a vigorous outreach program to enhance public understanding of science.
Larson's achievements as dean include the dramatic rise in national rankings of all the academic departments within the college, as documented in a comprehensive study released in 2011 by the U.S. National Research Council, which ranked the performance of more than 5,000 graduate programs in 62 fields at 212 U.S. universities.
In recognition of his performance and achievements, Larson was honored as the recipient of Penn State's 2012 Award for Administrative Excellence. Among his other accomplishments as dean are his support for graduate research and undergraduate instruction, and founding the Penn State Millennium Scholars Program along with Associate Dean Mary Beth Williams. This highly selective program is designed for academically strong students whose future plans include a commitment to pursuing a doctoral degree in science or engineering, and who are committed to increasing the diversity of researchers in science and engineering.
Larson also is known for his leadership contributions to major U.S. science initiatives and advisory panels. He is an accomplished researcher whose experiments have contributed to the understanding of important processes and properties in atomic, molecular, and optical physics.
He is chair of the board of directors of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope -- one of the world's largest optical telescopes and an instrument for which Penn State is a major partner institution. He also is past chair of the Space Telescope Science Institute Council. He was honored in 2006 as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a member of the Optical Society of America and an elected member of the honorary societies Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi and Sigma Pi Sigma.
Among his many service contributions to Penn State, Larson has served as vice-chair and chair of the Academic Leadership Council, member of the Applied Research Laboratory Advisory Board, member of the Faculty Senate Committee on Faculty Rights and Responsibilities, vice-chair and chair of the Penn State United Way Campaign, member of the board of directors of the Penn State Research Foundation, co-leader of the Health Sciences 2020 Team, member of the University Strategic Planning Council, chair of the Achieving Excellence Task Force and member of the University Academic Program and Administrative Services Review Core Council.
Before joining Penn State in 1998, Larson held a named professorship in physics at the University of Virginia. At the beginning of his career, Larson was an assistant professor of physics at Harvard University from 1970 to 1975, and was an associate professor of physics there from 1975 to 1978. He then joined the University of Virginia in 1978 as an associate professor of physics, was promoted to professor in 1987, was associate dean of arts and sciences from 1989 to 1991, was chairman of the physics department there from 1991 to 1997 and was named the Maxine S. and Jesse W. Beams Professor of Physics in 1996. He also was a visiting professor at the U.S. National Bureau of Standards in 1985 and 1986 and at Chalmers University in Sweden in 1986 and a visiting scientist at the Laboratoire Aimé Cotton in France in 1991.
Larson graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor of arts degree in physics and mathematics from St. Olaf College in 1966. He earned his master's degree in 1967 and his doctoral degree in 1971, both in physics at Harvard University. He was named a Woodrow Wilson fellow in 1966 and was a National Science Foundation graduate fellow from 1966 to 1970.