Graduate School dean to return to teaching and research

Robin Kanarek, dean of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences for the past three and a half years, will step down from that post on August 31 to return to teaching and research.

Robin Kanarek © Kathleen Dooher

Kanarek, a professor of psychology, has been a faculty member at Tufts for more than 20 years. She is also a professor in the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. Her research interests include physiological psychology, psychopharmacology, nutrition and behavior.

Tufts President Lawrence S. Bacow appointed her dean of the graduate school, which has 1,200 students, in 2002. In a letter to her colleagues, Kanarek said her tenure as dean has allowed her “to learn much about the intellectual life of a great university...One of the most stimulating and rewarding aspect of my time has been working with the outstanding graduate students at Tufts.”

She wrote: “Although I am leaving academic administration, I am looking forward to continuing to be a part of the community as President Bacow, Provost [Jamshed] Bharucha and their team implement their vision of Tufts as a premier teaching and research university.”