Djalali to start as University of Iowa liberal arts dean in August

University of Iowa officials on Friday named Chaden Djalali as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, effective Aug. 15.

Djalali is professor and chairman of the department of physics and astronomy at the University of South Carolina. He was one of three finalists to visit the UI campus in the dean search in March and April.

Djalali, 56, joined the physics faculty of South Carolina in 1989 and has served as the chairman of the department since 2004. In 2007 he was appointed to a Carolina Distinguished Professorship in recognition of his outstanding research and teaching.

His UI salary will be $325,000. The appointment is subject to approval by the state Board of Regents.

Djalali will replace Linda Maxson, who served as dean of UI liberal arts and sciences for 15 years and will rejoin the UI biology faculty upon stepping down.

Djalali maintains an active research program in intermediate energy nuclear physics and hadronic physics and has taught at all university levels and contributed significantly to undergraduate and graduate curriculum development.

He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Paris XI and doctorate from Institut de Physique Nucléaire in Paris.