People: Carnegie Mellon Names Department Head As Dean Of Its Mellon College Of Science

Susan A. Henry, head of Carnegie Mellon University's department of biological sciences and a professor in the department, has been named dean of the university's Mellon College of Science. Henry, 45, has headed the biological sciences department since 1987. As department head, she has obtained grants totaling more than $1.5 million from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the National Science Foundation, and the National Intitutes of Health for special educational projects focusing on strengthening undergraduate research, developing interdisciplinary courses, and retaining women and minorities in science programs.

Henry has also developed outreach programs to enrich the skills of high school teachers in Pittsburgh public schools. One of the biggest outreach projects, she says, has been a series of workshops to teach high school teachers to use computers in science classes. When they first came to the workshops, "many of the teachers felt uncomfortable using even small personal computers" because they...