Sample
Dean's Recommendation - Promotion
October 14, 1995
VICE CHANCELLOR EDWARDS:
Chair Smith of the Statistics Department, supported by a 21-0-5 vote of tenured faculty, recommends promotion of Jane Roe to Associate Professor, Step I, effective July 1, 1996, after two years as Assistant Professor, Step IV. Roe is a theoretical statistician who is rapidly developing into an international star-- explicitly recognized by the 1993 Felton Prize. Outside letters uniformly express enthusiasm. Roe's teaching has been dedicated and effective; her service has been promising. The promotion might be viewed as rapid compared with other professors in Physical Sciences, but Roe's case is sufficiently strong that I see nothing to be gained by delay. The high regard in which Roe is held by a wide array of international experts clearly indicates the kind of intellectual attainments we expect for tenure.
Further, Roe is making a valuable teaching contribution to the Department in just the way I had hoped at her appointment. Not only has she filled the Department's programmatic needs, but her enthusiasm in upper division courses is starting to revitalize the Department's major, which has been allowed to drift for several years.
I see this case as one of the strongest ones I have dealt with in my five years as a Dean. All signs indicate that Berkeley has here made an outstanding appointment. I support the proposed promotion to tenure without reservation. Roe will clearly be a central figure in the development of the Department's research and teaching program in the next decade.
Sample
Chair's Recommendation - Promotion
October 1, 1995
Dear Dean Jones,
Re: Assistant Professor Jane Roe: Promotion to Associate Professor I
I write to recommend that Jane Roe be promoted from Assistant Professor, Step IV, to Associate Professor at Step I, effective July 1, 1996. As will become clear in the case that follows, Assistant Professor Roe has a record of achievement and recognition in research which is outstanding even by Berkeley's standards, she is an excellent teacher who continues to work towards improving her teaching, and she is a superb colleague. Overall, her contributions amply justify the recommended promotion.
Professor Roe was appointed Assistant Professor at Step II effective July 1, 1991. She requested a leave-of absence for a year to take up the prestigious Johnson Research Instructorship in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Michigan, and joined the Berkeley Campus on July 1, 1992. Professor Roe's Ph.D. was from the University of Manchester in 1991. She has held visiting appointments at the University of Georgia and the University of New South Wales. Professor Roe was advanced to Assistant Professor Step III on July 1, 1993 and to Step IV on July 1, 1994.
Although she has been in the Department of Statistics only three years, Professor Roe has made a highly favorable impression, and it was believed strongly by the Department's Personnel Committee that she should be promoted to a tenured position as soon as possible.
1. Research
Professor Roe's research record is outstanding. In just over four years since her Ph.D. she has published twenty papers on a wide range of topics in theoretical statistics and probability, and all have appeared in first-rate international journals. A further five papers have been submitted for publication, including one which is already being acclaimed as an outstanding contribution to solving a well known and extremely difficult problem. In the accompanying report by a departmental personnel committee, two of the main strands of Roe's research are discussed in more detail, her research on Maxwell processes and her most recent work on semiparametric estimation problems. The personnel committee also elaborates on my claim above for the paper in press and comments briefly on some of the other areas to which Roe has contributed.
It cannot be emphasized too much how unusual this record is for such a recent Ph.D. graduate. The range of areas, the depth of the contributions and the technical mastery are truly impressive. Not surprisingly, this record has caused Roe to become widely acclaimed by many senior researchers in statistics theory as an outstanding new figure in the scene. External reviewers who know of Roe's work well are unanimous in the view that she is one of the brightest and most accomplished young researchers in the US. The personnel committee quotes some excerpts from the letters from these scientists and I urge you to go through the letters themselves. They are truly impressive.
Earlier this year Professor Roe was awarded the 1993 Felton Prize, an international award for outstanding research in theoretical or applied statistics. As the personnel committee points out, Roe is one of only three non-tenured recipients of this prize since it began in 1977.
A further point worth noting is that last year Professor Roe was awarded her own NSF grant, something which is extremely unusual for such a recent Ph.D. graduate. This is further clear evidence of the high level of respect accorded to her research.
2. Teaching
Professor Roe is an excellent and dedicated teacher. The first is clear from the student evaluations of the courses she has taught over the past four years at Berkeley, and the second is clear from her own "Statement on Teaching". The personnel committee has given excerpts from the student evaluations and from departmental colleagues who have observed Roe's teaching. Raw evaluations from small classes and a summary of the evaluations from all classes taught by Roe, along with the enrollments in these classes, are appended. In overall effectiveness she is rated 6.1 on a 7 point scale whereas the department mean is 5.8. I have had a number of discussions with Professor Roe on issues relating to the courses she currently teaches and on her future role in our teaching program. She is genuinely committed to improving her own teaching performance and to working with colleagues to improve the teaching program more generally. I believe that she has the knowledge, skills and personal attitudes to make a really positive impact in this area.
Roe gave a superb presentation of her research to a joint seminar of the Cal Tech and Berkeley mathematics departments last Spring. It was a masterpiece of exposition of an extremely difficult topic, and was very favorably received by all of those present.
Roe is willing to teach a relatively wide range of topics. It is unusual, though not unheard of, for someone to cross the boundaries between statistics and probability theory at the graduate teaching level, but Professor Roe is doing so this Spring. Roe guides two PhD students and three MS students. One of the Ph.D. students, Mike Rollins, expects to complete his thesis next year.
3. Service
Professor Roe's formal service record is necessarily brief and limited primarily to the department. As the personnel committee points out, Roe has been our library representative and has served on oral examination committees and the graduate placement committee. Professor Roe participates in all scientific activities in the department and is willing to be involved in long term planning. She has served on the department graduate admissions committee and has chaired a newly formed committee to encourage breadth of research interest among students.
Department deliberations
A meeting of all tenured faculty and emeriti was called to discuss Professor Roe's promotion case. Many of the points made at the meeting echoed those outlined above, but in addition colleagues commented on Roe's extraordinary general knowledge, her openness and her collegial spirit. It became clear that Roe had very quickly established herself as a valued colleague as well as a rising star in theoretical statistics. A significant number of people reported having had a valuable discussion concerning statistical problems and probability theory with her.
Following the meeting a secret ballot was held. The result of the ballot was 21 in favor, 0 opposed, 5 abstaining. Of the 21 in favor, five are emeriti. Three abstentions were due to conflicting administrative and Senate roles: one by a member of the Budget Committee, one by the Department Chair, one by a Division Dean. Two were by faculty members who felt themselves too remote from the candidate's field to judge her research. Because there are a total of 28 eligible voters (including emeriti and joint appointments), this is very strong departmental support indeed for Roe's case.
In closing, let me reiterate that in Professor Jane Roe we have one of the top researchers of her generation in her field, an accomplished and dedicated teacher and a superb colleague. Roe has not been with us for long, but we have quickly recognized her talents. I believe that the case I have summarized in this letter, which is documented more fully in the accompanying material, is a very strong one. I urge you to accept the Department of Statistics' recommendation that Jane Roe be promoted to Associate Professor at Step I, effective July 1996.
Enclosure #1
October 1, 1995
Dear Charles,
This is to report on the case of Jane Roe, and to recommend strongly that she be promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. Upon promotion Roe will have spent four years as Assistant Professor, but will have been five years since the PhD. Roe served one year as Johnson Instructor at the University of Michigan. The recommended promotion to tenure is amply justified by a very strong research record, an above average teaching record, and a promising service record.
Teaching
The numerical student evaluations are better than the Department's average for courses at the same level, and the students' comments are mostly positive: "well-organized," "clear and thorough," "takes teaching seriously and really wants the students to learn." The negative comments were mostly on matters that will improve with experience and adjustment to Berkeley students: the style of homework and exams and sometimes going too slow in class.
That she is really conscientious about teaching is plain from her own "Statement on Teaching." She has attended Office of Educational Development workshops, and has a short list of rather innovative (to our Department) teaching strategies which she intends to try in future courses.
Finally, while her teaching at Berkeley has been mainly in upper division and graduate courses in her own research area, at Michigan she established a new one-year graduate course in probability and (according to Reviewer A) "did an excellent job of choosing materials and the level at which to present them." Roe has volunteered to teach a lower division course as well as a first-year graduate course next year.
Service
Because she has been at Berkeley only three years as an Assistant Professor, we would not expect extensive service contributions beyond the Department. She has served as the Department's representative on the University library committee, however, and has served on oral examinations outside the Department. Within the Department, her service has been extensive and well done: graduate placement committee and graduate admissions committee. Roe chairs a new committee to encourage breadth of research interest among students.
Professional standing
The overall judgments of reviewers attest a surprising visibility in so young a colleague: "one of the most accomplished and exciting new statisticians" (Reviewer B). "The volume of her research in just five years corresponds to what is expected from a good statistician in ten years" (Reviewer C). "One of the top in her generation in the U. S." (Reviewer D).
As other evidence of reputation, she was awarded an NSF Grant in 1993. She has given several invited lectures in the last year, one in London at the Breton Institute and one in Paris at the 25th annual meeting of theoretical or applied statistics.
Research
The research record is outstanding: Roe is just over four years past the PhD and has 25 papers published or submitted, in a broad range of topics in modern theoretical probability:
Maxwell processes indexed by local fields. This started with Roe's thesis work but has been substantially extended since then. Papers 5, 6, and 7 concern Markov paths of the Maxwell processes. A local field is a discrete, locally compact, totally connected topological field. The most familiar example is p prime, but there are many others. As Reviewer D writes: "The theory of Maxwell processes on R took many decades of work by many eminent mathematicians: in these three papers Roe has formulated and decided the corresponding results for local fields." This work is continued in 10, 12, and 14.
Semiparametric Estimation Theory. Semiparametric models extend classical parametric statistical models by allowing a subcomponent of the unknown parameter to be infinite dimensional. Interest may focus on inference of either the infinite or finite dimensional components. After initial development by senior statisticians, this rich blend of ideas from classical statistics, differential geometry and approximation theory has captured the imagination of the most talented statisticians and probabilists of a whole generation. This is a tough game for a young player, but by establishing a fruitful collaboration with Martin Tolerill, Roe has clearly gained recognition in a very select circle. In 11, 8, 13, 19, and 20, Doe and Tolerill show absolute continuity results leading to efficient estimaters. This solved a problem which had resisted experts attempts for several years. The results are to be used to study some concrete estimates associated with some long-standing biomedical data structures which are treated in subsequent papers 17, and 18.
One can exhibit at least three other areas of statistics and theoretical probability to which Roe has made serious contributions: nonidentifiability of parameters of the Markov process (15, 16), uniform convergence results for distribution estimates, and decomposition of David's perturbation processes (21, 22 in press). Roe is sole author on all but the six papers co-authored with Tolerill. A letter in the case from Professor Tolerill clarifies Roe's role in the collaborative research with Tolerill and establishes Roe's independent contributions to that research.
The personnel committee believes the case for tenure for Jane Roe is one of the most clear-cut cases the Department has ever had. We unanimously recommend that she be promoted to Associate Professor, Step I, effective July 1996.
Yours sincerely,
Personnel Committee
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