Dr. Sandra Greer
Provost and Dean of the Faculty

Dr. Sandra C. Greer was appointed provost and dean of the faculty and professor of chemistry at Mills College on July 1, 2008. Dr. Greer came to Mills from the University of Maryland, College Park, where she was professor of chemistry and biochemistry and professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering.

Dr. Greer completed her undergraduate study in chemistry at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, and earned her graduate degree at the University of Chicago. After graduate school, she was a research chemist at the National Institute for Standards and Technology for nine years. In 1978, she joined the faculty at the University of Maryland. From 1985–86, she served as a program officer at the National Science Foundation.

At the University of Maryland, Dr. Greer taught at every level of the curriculum, from first-year to graduate-level courses. She made particular contributions to the teaching of general chemistry to engineers, and to the teaching of professional ethics to scientists and engineers. In 2008, she received the Poole and Kent Senior Teaching Award from the College of Engineering, and the Kirwan Undergraduate Award for exceptional contributions to undergraduate education at the campus level.

Dr. Greer maintained a research program in the experimental physical chemistry of polymers and biopolymers in solution, with grant funding from sources including the National Science Foundation and the Petroleum Research Fund. Her research contributions include the establishment of the relationship of liquid-liquid critical phenomena to the statistical mechanical theory of phase transitions, the exploration of reversible polymerizations as phase transitions, the study of the fractionation of polymers between liquid phases, and the discovery of helical conformations for simple polymers in solution. Her research led to her election as Fellow of both the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She was also awarded the American Chemical Society's 2004 Francis P. Garvan-John M. Olin Medal recognizing distinguished service to chemistry by women chemists.

At the University of Maryland, Dr. Greer served on every significant campus committee, from promotion and tenure, to strategic planning, to the library council. From 1990–1993, she was chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemisty. She has also served on numerous panels at the National Science Foundation and at the National Institutes of Health.