Mathematics’ Gremaud Appointed Associate Dean of Graduate School

Pierre Gremaud, professor of mathematics at NC State, has been named associate dean for program development and evaluation in the Graduate School. His appointment, effective Sept. 3, was announced by Peter Harries, Graduate School dean.

“Dr. Gremaud brings significant experience in graduate education to the associate dean’s position, given his previous roles in his department at the university level,” Harries said. “I look forward to his increased commitment to graduate education in this role, as well as the experience and perspectives he brings to the Graduate School.”

In his new role, Gremaud will be responsible for overseeing curricular changes as well as external review and outcomes-based annual assessments for all NC State graduate programs. In addition, he will assist in the development, review and editing of new course and program proposals, coordinate the external graduate program reviews, help faculty involved in outcomes assessment and manage the outcomes assessment and evaluation reports.

He replaces Mike Carter, who is transitioning to half-time work. Carter will continue to be involved with the Graduate School’s Dissertation Completion Grant.

Gremaud has served as director of NC State’s graduate programs in mathematics and applied mathematics and is a member of the administrative board of the Graduate School. The programs he directs have been recognized for their quality and inclusiveness, having achieved, for instance, near gender parity, a rare feat in any STEM discipline.

In addition, he has spearheaded several curricular initiatives both within the math department and more broadly as exemplified by the development of a new master’s program on foundations of data science with the computer science and statistics departments. To date, he has mentored six postdoctoral scholars, and he has advised 14 graduate students at NC State.

He served as the first deputy director of the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute (SAMSI) from 2008 to 2012. SAMSI, funded by the National Science Foundation, is a consortium between NC State, Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill dedicated to promoting the use of statistics and applied math in addressing the most vexing and important data- and model-intensive challenges through interdisciplinary collaboration with other STEM fields.

In addition, he served as a member and chair of the NC State University Research Committee. Under his leadership, the committee launched the Research Leadership Academy in fall 2015. The initiative, which is supported by a number of high-level university units and colleges, aims to promote and reward excellence in research mentoring across the university.

Gremaud’s personal research experience is in the field of numerical analysis, covering applications ranging from mechanics and medicine to foundational challenges in high-dimension approximation. As a researcher, he has brought approximately $13 million in external funding to NC State.

Before coming to NC State, he was a visiting assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and a research fellow at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland.

Gremaud earned a doctorate in mathematics from EPFL and a master of science degree in theoretical physics from the Université de Neuchâtel, also in Switzerland.