Jean King will be the next Peterson Family Dean of Arts and Sciences at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. She has been serving as vice provost for biomedical research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. Dr. King is also a professor of psychiatry, radiology, and neurology and director of the Center for Comparative Neuroimaging.
Dr. King has served on the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Medical School since 1994. She is the co-editor of Roots of Mental Illness in Children (New York Academy of Sciences, 2004).
In accepting the appointment, Dr. King said, “Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s distinctive approach to project-based learning, cutting-edge discoveries, and research — in addition to its commitment to excellence in arts and humanities along with STEM — make this university a very special place for fostering the next generation of innovators. I am delighted and honored to join the WPI community and hope to help catalyze new collaborations and discoveries that will benefit not just our community but communities across the globe.”
Dr. King is a magna cum laude graduate of Saint Francis College in New York. She holds a master’s degree in cell biology from the City University of New York, and a Ph.D. in neurophysiology from New York University.