About the Institution
2006 Commencement
The University
The University of Florida traces its origins to 1853 when the state-funded East Florida Seminary acquired the private Kingsbury Academy in Ocala, Florida. After the Civil War, the seminary was moved to Gainesville. It was consolidated with the state’s land-grant Florida Agricultural College, then in Lake City, to become the University of Florida in 1906. Until 1947, UF was designated for men and was only one of three state universities. Today, with more than 48,000 students, UF is among the five largest universities in the nation.
It is the largest of the 11 state universities, and is governed by the State Board of Education, the Florida Board of Governors and the UF Board of Trustees.
UF joined the ranks of North America’s best graduate research institutions with its admission in 1985 to the Association of American Universities, the most prestigious organization in higher education. The university also has been recognized by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education as one of the nation’s leading research universities.
The university includes 16 colleges, five schools and more than 100 interdisciplinary research and education centers, bureaus and institutes. Students can choose majors from 100 undergraduate degree programs and around 200 graduate programs.
UF employs more than 4,000 faculty members and 7,500 administrative professional and support staff. With operations in more than 900 buildings on 2,000 acres, the university has research centers, extension offices, clinics and other facilities in every county in Florida.
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences was established in 1909 and serves as the core of academic life, focusing on providing students with knowledge and training in critical thinking and reasoning so graduates will have the skills to undertake leadership positions in a global society. CLAS plays an important role in interdisciplinary programs that are at the frontiers of the humanities and the natural and social sciences.
The college is UF’s largest, with 12,000 undergraduates and 2,000 graduate students, and offers students a wider variety of courses and programs than any other college at UF. CLAS offers 36 majors and 42 minors through 23 departments, four academic programs and four centers. In addition, the college is home to 34 centers and institutes that provide programs and courses developed by leading researchers and scholars.
CLAS faculty rank among the best in the nation and have received the Pulitzer Prize, Fulbright Awards, National Science Foundation and National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships, and hold memberships in the National Academy of Science.
CLAS students also are among the top, recently receiving a Rhodes scholarship, and several Barry Goldwater, Harry Truman and James Madison scholarships.
Our President
J. Bernard “Bernie” Machen, D.D.S., M.S., Ph.D., was appointed
as the 11th president of the University of Florida in October 2003. He
assumed his duties on January 5, 2004. Prior to coming to Gainesville,
he served six years as the president of the University of Utah.
Dr. Machen was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, but he grew up in St. Louis. After attending Vanderbilt University for his undergraduate studies, he earned his doctor of dental surgery degree from St. Louis University, and his master of science in pediatric dentistry and Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Iowa. He received distinguished alumnus awards from the University of Iowa and St. Louis University.
He served as professor and associate dean at the University of North Carolina’s School of Dentistry from 1983 to 1989, and was president of the American Association of Dental Schools in 1987.
Prior to his appointment at Utah, he was provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of Michigan from 1995 to 1997 and served as dean of the University of Michigan School of Dentistry from 1989 until 1995. From 1992 to 1995, he also served as a member of the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine Committee on Educating Dentists for the Future.
Previous responsibilities included senior academic and clinical positions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, including associate dean of the university’s School of Dentistry and an appointment as chief of the Department of Extension Services at the U.S. Army Institute of Dental Research, Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry and a Fellow of the American College of Dentists.
Since arriving in Florida, he has been active on the boards of directors of Shands Healthcare, Gainesville Chamber of Commerce (ex-officio), and Oak Hammock.
At UF, he has made campus-community interactions a top priority, seeking an even stronger UF commitment to community activities.
Dr. Machen also has made building strong relations with the Florida legislature an early hallmark of his tenure, and he has traveled throughout the state to meet with representatives of the many organizations and communities who look to the university for leadership and service.
A veteran U.S. Army major, Dr. Machen and his wife, Chris, have two sons and a daughter.
Our Dean
Neil
S. Sullivan became dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in
July 2001. His appointment followed a national nine-month search, during
which Dr. Sullivan served as interim dean of the college.
Dr. Sullivan and his wife, Robyn, are natives of New Zealand. He received his bachelor of science and master of science degrees in physics from Otago University in New Zealand in 1964 and 1965, respectively. He was a Frank Knox Memorial Scholar at Harvard University from 1965–1970 and completed his Ph.D. at Harvard in 1972. For the next 10 years, he was a research physicist at the Centre d’Etudes Nucleaires in France. While in Paris, Dr. Sullivan and his students discovered the quadrupolar glass phase of solid hydrogen.
He came to UF in 1983 as a physics professor and served as chair of the department from 1989–1999. Under his leadership, the New Physics Building was completed in 1997. He is a co-founder of the Microkelvin Research Laboratory at UF, which is the largest ultra-low temperature laboratory in the world. He was named CLAS Associate Dean of Research in 1999 and served in that position until becoming dean in 2001.
Dr. Sullivan is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of the Société Francaise de Physique (France), the Institute of Physics (London), the European Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He also served on the Board of Governors of the Joint Oceanographic Institutions from 1999–2002. He has received many honors and awards for his research and teaching. In 1978, the College of France presented him with the Prix Saintour, and he received La Caze Physics Prize from the Academie des Sciences in 1983. The university has honored Dr. Sullivan with a 1988 CLAS Teacher of the Year Award and a UF Superior Accomplishment Award for Service in 1992.
Since 1990, Dr. Sullivan has served as UF’s co-principal investigator for the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. The lab, which is a collaborative effort between the University of Florida, Florida State University and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, is the only one of its kind in the United States. The facility is the largest and highest-powered magnet laboratory in the world.
Dr. Sullivan has taught undergraduate and graduate classes on electricity and magnetism, classical mechanics and thermodynamics. He has authored more than 200 refereed publications in his field and has received numerous grants from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy to pursue research on quantum solids and fluids, low temperature physics and magnetic resonance studies of solids.
Dr. Sullivan and his wife have three sons, including a set of twins.
State Board of Education
- F. Philip Handy, Chair, Winter Park
- T. Willard Fair, Vice Chair, Miami
- Donna Callaway, Tallahassee
- Roberto Martinez, Miami
- Phoebe Raulerson, Okeechobee
- Kathleen Shanahan, Tampa
- Linda Taylor, Fort Myers
- John Winn, Commissioner of Education, Tallahassee
Florida Board of Governors
- Carolyn K. Roberts, Chair, Ocala
- John Dasburg, Vice Chairman, Miami
- Jorge Arrizurieta, Coral Gables
- Akshay Desai, St. Petersburg
- Ann W. Duncan, Tampa
- Charles “Charlie” Edwards, Fort Myers
- Joe Goldberg, Miami
- J. Stanley Marshall, Tallahassee
- Frank Martin, Tallahassee
- Sheila M. McDevitt, Tampa
- Lynn Pappas, Jacksonville
- Ava L. Parker, Jacksonville
- Martha Palaéz, Miami
- Tico Perez, Orlando
- John W. Temple, Boca Raton
- John Winn, Commissioner of Education, Tallahassee
- Zachariah P. Zachariah, Fort Lauderdale
UF Board of Trustees
- Manny A. Fernandez, Chair, Fort Myers
- Carlos Alfonso, Tampa
- C. David Brown II, Orlando
- Courtney Cunningham, Coral Gables
- Roland Daniels, Gainesville
- W. A. “Mac” McGriff III, Jacksonville
- Joelen Merkel, Boca Raton
- Dianna Fuller Morgan, Windermere
- Cynthia F. O’Connell, Tallahassee
- Earl W. Powell, Miami
- Kim Tanzer, Gainesville
- Alfred C. Warrington IV, Houston, Texas
- Joe Goldberg, Student Trustee, Miami
UF Vice Presidents
- Jane Adams, Vice President
University Relations - Douglas Barrett, Jr., Senior Vice President
Health Affairs - Pamela J. Bernard, Vice President
General Counsel - Kyle Cavanaugh, Vice President
Human Resources - Jimmy G. Cheek, Senior Vice President
Agriculture and Natural Resources - Jeremy N. Foley, Athletic Director
University Athletic Association - Janie M. Fouke, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
- Winfred M. Phillips, Vice President
Research - J. E. “Ed” Poppell, Vice President
Finance and Administration - Paul A. Robell, Vice President
Development and Alumni Affairs - Patricia Telles-Irvin, Vice President
Student Affairs
CLAS Associate Deans and Directors
- Allan F. Burns
Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs - Louis J. Guillette, Jr.
Associate Dean for Research - S. Yumiko Hulvey
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs - Angel Kwolek-Folland
Associate Dean for Centers, Institutes and International Affairs - Albert R. Matheny
Associate Dean for Student Affairs - Terry L. Mills
Associate Dean for Minority Affairs and Special Programs - James R. Mueller
Associate Dean for Administrative Affairs - John R. Sabin
Director of Information Resources and Technological Programs
CLAS Chairs and Directors
- Terry L. Mills
African American Studies Program - Ann K. Wehmeyer
African and Asian Languages and Literatures Department - Leonardo Villalón
African Studies, Center for - Kenneth E. Sassaman
Anthropology Department - Joseph A. Murphy
Asian Studies Program - Stanley F. Dermott
Astronomy Department - Walter S. Judd
Biological Sciences Program - George E. Bowes
Botany Department - David E. Richardson
Chemistry Department - Robert S. Wagman
Classics Department - Christine M. Sapienza
Communication Sciences and Disorders Department - Sartaj Sahni
Computer and Information Science and Engineering
Department - Lonn M. Lanza-Kaduce
Criminology, Law and Society Department - Jonathan H. Hamilton
Economics Department - John P. Leavey
English Department - Amie Kreppel
European Studies, Center for - Peter R. Waylen
Geography Department - Paul A. Mueller
Geological Sciences Department - Dragan Kujundzic
Germanic and Slavic Studies Department - Patricia A. Kricos
Gerontological Studies, Center for - Joseph F. Spillane
History Department - S. Yumiko Hulvey
Interdisciplinary Studies Program - Jack Kugelmass
Jewish Studies, Center for - Mark Brenner
Land Use and Environmental Change Institute - Carolyn R. Wiltshire
Linguistics Program - Krishnaswami Alladi
Mathematics Department - Eric W. Triplett
Microbiology and Cell Science Department - Julian M. Pleasants
Oral History Program - Robert D’Amico
Philosophy Department - Alan T. Dorsey
Physics Department - Philip J. Williams
Political Science Department - Martin Heesacker
Psychology Department - David G. Hackett
Religion Department - David A. Pharies
Romance Languages and Literatures Department - John C. Henretta
Sociology Department - George Casella
Statistics Department - Milagros Peña
Women’s Studies and Gender Research, Center for - Kellie W. Roberts
Written and Oral Communication, Dial Center for - David H. Evans
Zoology Department
