Incoming Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Edward Wing formally introduced himself to the Brown community Monday, saying he plans to continue the rapid rise in recent years of the medical school and other programs.
"Our programs have risen like rockets," Wing said, speaking at a press conference in the Maddock Alumni Center. He was introduced by President Ruth Simmons and Provost David Kertzer '69 P'95 P'98, who chose Wing from a list of five names selected by an advisory search committee.
Simmons praised Wing for the "breadth of experience and expertise that will make him effective" in the Division of Biology and Medicine, saying he was well-acquainted with the National Institutes of Health - the primary source of funding for medical research at Brown - and with federal funding processes.
Wing came to Brown from the University of Pittsburgh 10 years ago as a professor and chair of the Department of Medicine, a position he will leave July 1 when he takes over from the current BioMed dean, Eli Adashi.
He will also give up his physician-in-chief positions at the Miriam Hospital and Rhode Island Hospital, along with his other positions at Brown's affiliated hospitals. He told The Herald he will shift roles in July, becoming no longer connected to the hospitals, but representing all aspects of the division, which includes, as Simmons described it, everything from introductory biology classes to its assorted doctoral programs.
Associate Professor of Medicine Stephen Gregory is Wing's research partner and has known him for 20 years, ever since Wing recruited him first to Pittsburgh and then to Brown. Though his primary responsibilities have since drifted toward the administrative, Wing "absolutely turned around research" at Brown, Gregory said. He said he has seen research growing in the Jewelry District during his time here.
"Ed Wing had a lot to do with that," he said.
Gregory watched from his office in the Jewelry District as the building at 70 Ship St., once the home of the Spiedel watch band company, was turned over to Brown and became the home of molecular medicine labs.
Gregory worked with Wing on researching the immune defenses of the liver - which clears most of the bacteria entering the bloodstream - in responding to the bacterium Listeria, using that pathogen as a model. He said Wing told him a month or two ago that he was being considered for the dean position but that with the added responsibilities, Wing "wasn't really interested" in the job. When he was offered the position and took it, though, Gregory said Wing told him of his earlier comment: "I was just joking." Wing told The Herald he has no specific plans yet, but will have "a rapid strategic planning process" to decide how to use the $100 million gift to the medical school from the Warren Alpert Foundation. He said Brown's cancer research is one likely recipient of the money.
His first task, though, will be to find a replacement for his old position, the medicine department chair. He said he will announce an interim replacement by July 1, though his successor will likely take on some of his or her new responsibilities before then. The search for a permanent replacement should take about a year, he said, since he is "aggressive" in terms of recruitment and plans to use his connections to find a replacement.
Wing also said his role as dean will include using his position as a "bully pulpit" to speak out on health care issues nationally.
"I've always been in a political role to some extent," he said. "But I welcome that."
Wing said the Alpert gift represents a "tremendous opportunity" for the medical school, which he noted has risen in the U.S. News and World Report rankings over the course of Adashi's tenure, from 43 in 2004 to 34 in 2007. He said he plans on maintaining that momentum.
Simmons said at yesterday's press conference that the internal search that resulted in Wing's selection was also intended to keep that momentum. Some within the BioMed division criticized the search, which ended this week only three months after it began because of the need to find a replacement for Adashi, who announced his resignation, effective July 1, in December. The nine-member search committee had no students or clinical faculty.
But Kertzer said an internal search was the right decision and that the dissenters were only a few people out of a division with hundreds of members, most of whom supported the process. He said the committee "consulted very broadly" in its search.
Simmons told The Herald that she respected that people won't always agree, but that Kertzer and the committee made every effort to solicit views and ask questions. She said the process worked well.
"The test is in the result," she added.
