Incoming dean of BSOS college Gregory Ball
Gregory Ball is scheduled to become the new dean of the behavioral and social sciences college at this university Oct. 1.
Ball, a former psychological and brain sciences professor, will take over for the current dean of the college, John R. Townshend.
Ball previously worked as vice dean for science and research infrastructure for about six years at the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University.
As vice dean, Ball was responsible for faculty recruitment and retention, research, and oversight of federal grants, laboratory safety and large computation field facilities, among other things, said Katherine Newman, the dean of the Krieger School.
Ball was a key leader in the Gateway Science Initiative, which enriched learning for students in quantitative fields such as economics, and also helped develop Johns Hopkins’ new Undergraduate Teaching Laboratory, geared toward ameliorating undergraduate science teaching.
“In addition to all of this, he is himself an extraordinary scholar — very prolific,” Newman said.
Ball has been published in numerous journals, and as a result of his caliber has the highest grant renewal scores of anyone in the Krieger School, said Newman.
Ball said when his friends at this university alerted him to the newly opened dean position, he was immediately drawn to the school and the prospects of taking on a leadership position.
“It’s a really high-quality unit that’s doing all kinds of exciting things, and there’s future potential for integration with other aspects of the school and the university,” Ball said.
He already knows what he hopes to accomplish once he takes the reigns.
A long-term goal of Ball’s is to further develop the college by integrating training for students at all levels and for faculty research.
“We’re in the midst of a methodological revolution in the application of data-intensive computation to different fields,” Ball said. “This is something that has already been engaged [in the college], and one of the things I really want to work on.”
Ball said he would also explore connections with other related divisions of behavioral and biological studies, such as neuroscience, and hopefully teach again once he establishes himself at this university.
“I love teaching. I love being with smart people who are creating new knowledge,” Ball said. “It’s just a wonderful privilege to be around people so committed to scholarship.”
Ball’s own scholasticism and capabilities as an administrator landed him the coveted position; of the hundreds of applicants, only about a dozen were interviewed, and about three to five were invited to visit campus, said Juan Uriagereka, associate provost for faculty affairs.
“This is the type of person you want to have in your faculty, whether he is dean or not,” Uriagereka said. “He is a rising star.”
Although Ball’s job at this university begins in October, Ball will visit Johns Hopkins intermittently for research until his lab space is moved, and he also plans to help the interim dean of the Krieger School, Beverly Wendland, get acclimated.
