Headrick to Step Down As UB Provost

By Sue Wuetcher

Release Date: November 5, 1998 This content is archived.

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BUFFALO, N.Y. -- University at Buffalo Provost Thomas E. Headrick will step down as the university's chief academic officer effective Jan. 1, President William R. Greiner has announced.

Headrick will return to his former role as senior counselor to the president, a position he held prior to being named provost.

David J. Triggle, vice provost for graduate education and research and dean of the Graduate School, will assume the dual role of provost and dean of the Graduate School.

Headrick assumed the role of provost on May 3, 1995, after the sudden death of then-Provost Aaron Bloch. University-wide academic planning has been his platform for academic leadership. His academic planning document -- which engaged the campus like nothing else in recent memory when it was released to the university community on Feb. 14, 1997 -- outlined the changes, both administrative and philosophical, that Headrick believed the university must undergo if it is to become a premier, public-research institution.

"Tom has done an absolutely remarkable job," said Greiner, noting that Headrick held a number of "troubleshooting jobs" at UB over the years, the biggest of which was stepping in as provost after Bloch's death.

"Everyone who worked with him is going to miss him. He's a real team player and a real university citizen."

Among Headrick's accomplishments as provost, Greiner cited the creation of the College of Arts and Sciences, the creation of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and the pending merger of the School of Information and Library Studies and the Department of Communication.

Headrick also "orchestrated the restructuring of leadership of UB's health sciences," including the hiring of Michael Bernardino as vice president for health affairs, as well as beginning to build a new resource-allocation system for the academic units and implementing long-term budgeting plans, he added.

Greiner said Headrick will assist Triggle in the further design of the budget and resource-allocation systems and in the submission of a mission report as requested by SUNY central administration, in order to "maintain continuity on these projects."

Triggle and Headrick have worked closely together for more than three years and both agree that continuity is essential.

As provost and dean, Triggle also will continue to work on academic strategic planning, along with the deans and other constituencies, and will oversee the day-to-day work of the Provost's Office.

Greiner noted Triggle will devote particular attention to the issues of graduate education and research, and will work with Dale M. Landi, vice president for research, "to fully integrate the Office of the Vice President for Research into the Provost's Office."

Since the university has not had a search for a provost since Bloch's appointment in 1992, Greiner said he will head a broadly based search committee for a provost. Ideally, the search process will be completed by the end of 1999 at the latest, with the named provost in position in Spring or Summer 2000, he said.

Headrick has held a wide variety of academic and administrative positions during his more than two decades at UB. He joined the faculty in 1976 as dean of the Law School, holding that position until 1985 when he returned to the faculty as a full professor.

Outside of the law school, Headrick served as interim dean of the Faculty of Arts and Letters in 1990 and chair of the General Assembly of the Undergraduate College from 1987-89.

He returned to administration in the Law School as associate dean for academic affairs from 1992-94, with prime responsibility for the school's curriculum revision. He was acting law dean for the Fall 1994 semester while then-Dean Barry Boyer was on sabbatical.

He was named a SUNY Distinguished Service Professor, the highest rank in the State University of New York system, by the SUNY Board of Trustees in 1993.

Triggle also holds the rank of SUNY Distinguished Professor. He joined the UB faculty in 1962 as an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemical Pharmacology. He served as chair of the department from 1971-85, when he was named dean of the School of Pharmacy. He held that position until he was named dean of the Graduate School and vice provost for graduate education and research in 1995.

Triggle's internationally recognized research focuses on how drugs interact with calcium channels, cellular mechanisms that regulate the entry of calcium when stimulated. He has conducted pioneering research into the action of calcium-channel antagonists in the cardiovascular system and studies calcium channels and aging.

He has served on numerous internal and external committees relating to pharmacy and health-sciences curricula and the future of graduate programs in general.

A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science since 1975, Triggle is a member of numerous professional societies. He serves on many editorial boards and is editor of Pharmaceutical News and co-editor of Drug Development Research.

He is the author or co-author of 10 books, 140 book chapters and reviews, and 250 scientific papers.

Among his numerous honors, he has received the Otto Krayer Award in Pharmacology from the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and the Volwiler Research Achievement Award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy.

A native of London, England, Triggle received a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Hull and a bachelor's degree from the University of Southampton.