Worcester Polytechnic Institute has appointed Karen Kashmanian Oates as its first Peterson Family Dean of Arts and Sciences.
Oates is now the deputy director of undergraduate education at the National Science Foundation’s Division of Undergraduate Studies. She will start the new job at WPI in August.
In her new position, she will fill one of three academic deanships being created at WPI. The university appointed Mark Rice as its first dean of business earlier this spring and is now searching for its first dean of engineering.
As dean, Oates will oversee seven departments at WPI: biology and biotechnology, chemistry and biochemistry, computer science, humanities and arts, mathematical sciences, physics, and social science and policy studies. She will also be responsible for the university’s interdisciplinary programs in environmental science and interactive media and game development.
Oates is a biochemist with experience in breast cancer research and other work in women’s health. She has worked for George Mason University and the National Institutes of Health’s Oncology and Hematology Division. She also helped found the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology.
She has a doctorate from George Washington University.
