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Vice provost changes made in research and graduate studies
Sara Rosen named associate vice provost and dean of graduate studies

Vice provost changes made in research and graduate studies

Steve Warren, director of KU’s internationally known Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies, becomes interim vice provost for research and graduate studies at KU in August. Warren will succeed Jim Roberts, who has decided to step down after a decade at the KU Center for Research Inc., and will resume his role as a professor of electrical engineering full time.

Since 2001, Warren has directed the Life Span Institute, one of the nation’s largest research programs for the prevention and treatment of developmental disabilities. He came to KU in 1999 from Vanderbilt University, where he was a professor of special education and deputy director of the John F. Kennedy Center for Human Development, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious mental retardation research programs.

“Jim was present at the creation of the KU Center for Research in 1997,” said Richard Lariviere, executive vice chancellor and provost. “Since then, research space has grown 50 percent, the volume of research has tripled and KU’s national research ranking climbed 10 places. Jim was part of all of that, as a strong and effective advocate for the university’s mission in research and graduate studies.”

Roberts joined the KU faculty in 1990 as professor and chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. As chair, he led the merger of two departments to form the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Roberts became associate vice chancellor and then associate vice provost for research in 1998. He served in that capacity until 2003, when he became interim vice provost for research. In 2004, he was named to the position on a permanent basis.

Sara Rosen named associate vice provost and dean of graduate studies

Sara Thomas Rosen, professor and chair of the department of linguistics at KU, has been named associate vice provost and dean of graduate studies. The appointment follows the previously announced combination of the Lawrence campus Office of Research and the Graduate School.

Rosen joined the KU faculty in 1991 as an assistant professor. Her background includes a bachelor’s degree in psychology (1981) and a master’s degree in special education (1982), both from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also received a doctorate in linguistics and cognitive science from Brandeis University (1990).

At KU, Rosen became associate professor in 1996 and full professor in 2006. She has been department chair since 2000. Her primary research interest is the relationship between sentence structure and sentence interpretation.

“This is a great opportunity to bring graduate education to the forefront at KU,” Rosen said. “We have many strong programs in the social sciences, the humanities, the sciences and engineering. I want all of them to connect more closely with KU's research mission, while maintaining their focus in great teaching. The whole faculty will be engaged in making this happen, and I look forward to working with them on this.”