Dennis DeTurck Named Robert A. Fox Leadership Professor

Dr. Dennis DeTurck, G ’80, dean of the College, and professor of mathematics, has been named the Robert A. Fox Leadership Professor, SAS Dean Rebecca W. Bushnell has announced.

He has been dean of the College since 2005, with responsibility for undergraduate curricula, programs and students in all departments and non-departmental programs in the School of Arts and Sciences. He directs the College office, together with its staff of advisers, and works with the dean of SAS on planning and priorities for undergraduate education in the arts and sciences.

A member of the mathematics faculty since 1982, he has authored more than 50 papers on pure and applied mathematics. His work centers on partial differential equations and differential geometry, where has produced results concerning Ricci curvature and flow, isospectral deformations and geometric knot theory, and he has written on applications of geometry to medicine and computer science. He also is managing editor of the American Mathematical Society’s Contemporary Mathematics book series.

He has long been a distinguished and dynamic presence in undergraduate education at Penn. His teaching has been recognized by a host of honors including the SAS Ira Abrams Award, the University’s Lindback Award and the Mathematical Association of America’s Haimo Award for Distinguished Teaching. He currently serves as faculty master of Riepe College House.

The Robert A. Fox Leadership Professorship was one of three chairs established by Robert A. Fox, C ’52, and his wife Penny Grossman Fox, Ed ’53, in association with the Robert A. Fox Leadership Program. Mr. Fox is the chairman and CEO of R.A.F. Industries Inc. He is an emeritus trustee at Penn and served on the Penn Medicine Board of Trustees and the Athletics Board of Overseers. In 1999, he received the Alumni Award of Merit. Mrs. Fox serves on the boards of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Moore College of Art and Design and the Pennsylvania Ballet. In addition to founding and endowing the Fox Program, the Foxes support a variety of areas of Penn, including medicine, athletics, undergraduate financial aid, and student life.