Cornell dean promoted to provost
Dr. Michael I. Kotlikoff, dean of Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine since 2007, is the university’s new provost as of Aug. 1.
As the chief academic officer, the provost provides leadership for the planning, development, implementation, assessment, and improvement of all academic programs, policies, and supporting infrastructure. Dr. Kotlikoff will lead a strategic planning process for the university that will conclude by December 2016.
As dean, Dr. Kotlikoff initiated a strategic plan to enhance the veterinary college’s programs in education, delivery of animal health care, and research. Plus, he launched an $87 million capital project to upgrade the veterinary college’s infrastructure and teaching facilities, which enabled an increase in class size. During his tenure, Dr. Kotlikoff oversaw an increase in diversity of the faculty, staff, and college administration; the expansion of clinical training opportunities for veterinary students; and a reorganization of the Cornell University Hospital for Animals. He also focused on expanding basic and clinical research programs and promoting translational and interdisciplinary research.
Under his leadership, the veterinary college opened a specialty and emergency and critical-care hospital in Stamford, Connecticut, and the Cornell Ruffian Equine Specialists, a referral and emergency care hospital, near the Belmont Racetrack in Elmont, New York. Cornell also partnered with City University of Hong Kong to establish the first veterinary college there in March 2014. Currently, it offers a postgraduate program leading to a doctorate degree in the area of biomedical sciences, and it has accepted its first class of graduate students; no date has been set for the first class of students to earn a bachelor of veterinary medicine degree. On the construction side, CityU is renovating a building for a teaching hospital and is in the planning stage for a diagnostic laboratory.
Dr. Kotlikoff earned his VMD degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1981 and a doctorate in physiology from the University of California-Davis in 1984.
He joined the Cornell faculty in 2000 as professor of molecular physiology and served as chair of the Department of Biomedical Sciences from 2000-2007. Prior to Cornell, he was a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania for 15 years, chairing the Department of Animal Biology from 1995-2000.
He has served on and chaired advisory committees for the National Institutes of Health, international scientific journals, scientific companies, and foreign universities.
His research laboratory, which has been funded continually by the NIH for more than 30 years, is recognized in the area of cardiovascular biology. Work from his laboratory has provided insights into heart development, cell-based heart therapy, muscle cell precursors, and the regenerative limits of heart cells. While provost, Dr. Kotlikoff will maintain his laboratory.
Dr. Lorin D. Warnick, professor of ambulatory and production medicine, has been appointed interim dean of the veterinary college. Dr. Warnick has served as associate dean for veterinary education for the past eight years and director of the Cornell University Hospital for Animals for the past three years. A search for Dr. Kotlikoff’s successor is currently underway.
Related JAVMA content:
Cornell appoints Kotlikoff as dean (June 15, 2007)
Cornell, China: long-distance partners (June 15, 2010)
Veterinary education continues expanding (Nov. 1, 2012) (Nov. 1, 2012)
Cornell to open equine hospital near racetrack (Feb. 1, 2014)