Two Women Scholars Named to National Science Foundation Leadership Posts

Katherine Gross, Distinguished Professor of Plant Biology and director of the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station at Michigan State University, has been appointed chair of the Advisory Committee for Biological Sciences at the National Science Foundation. Professor Gross has served on the committee since 2011 and her term as chair will last through 2017.

Professor Gross is a graduate of the University of Iowa. She holds a Ph.D. in zoology and ecology from Michigan State University.

Deborah Goodings, the Dewberry Professor of Civil Engineering and chair of the department of civil, environmental and infrastructure engineering at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, was named director of the Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation at the National Science Foundation. Before joining the faculty at George Mason University in 2009, she taught at the University of Maryland for nearly 30 years.

Professor Goodings is a graduate of the University of Toronto. She earned a Ph.D. in geotechnical engineering at Cambridge University in England.