Olin Named to National Board

Olin Named to National Board

Dr. Robert F. Olin

By Rebecca Florence

Dr. Robert F. Olin, dean of UA’s College of Arts and Sciences since August of 2000, has been appointed to a standing board of the National Research Council, a private organization of national experts chartered by Congress to advise the federal government and the nation on scientific and educational issues. Previously, he served as head of the department of mathematics at Virginia Tech for six years and as a member of the mathematics faculty for 25 years.

Olin joins the Committee on Undergraduate Science Education, one of the standing boards in the National Research Council’s Center for Education. The National Research Council is one of four arms of the National Academies that also includes the National Academy of Sciences, The National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.

The National Research Council committees are comprised of national experts who seek solutions to problems of interest to the nation. Such problems may range from assessing the danger of airborne anthrax viruses, the effect of electromagnetic fields on humans, the consequences of human reproductive cloning, to how to ensure that plutonium from dismantled nuclear weapons is kept of out of the hands of terrorists.

The Undergraduate Science Education Committee is charged with addressing critical national issues in science education research, policy, and practice. It seeks to improve college undergraduates’ learning of science and its applications. The committee identifies and encourages the implementation of programs that enrich the understanding of scientific and technological knowledge.

"Dean Olin has headed the College of Arts and Sciences for just over a year, yet he has already opened our own Mathematics Technology Learning Center, where over 500 students a semester are learning in a way that promises to increase their rates of success, and he has begun to sow his characteristics seeds of enthusiasm for other innovative uses of technology elsewhere on campus as head of the University of Alabama’s Technology committee," said UA President Andrew A. Sorensen.

"Dean Olin is a scholar and teacher who knows how to think outside of the box. He is passionately committed to improving mathematics and science education and he will bring invaluable experience and a keen perspective to this distinguished body of national experts. He will represent the University and our state admirably," said UA Provost Nancy Barrett.

Under Olin’s leadership, Virginia Tech established the nationally acclaimed Mathematics Emporium in 1997. The Emporium is a self-paced, computer-assisted program of mathematics instruction that has become a national model for innovative mathematics education and for the use of technology in instruction.

Olin received his doctorate in mathematics in 1975 from Indiana University in Bloomington. More information about the National Academies can be found on the Web at www.nationalacademies.org.