About Us

The School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (SNSM) was established in Fall 2008.  
To solidify research clusters and build bridges for interdisciplinary research, a kickoff event was held in October 2008. Physics Chair, Pritish Mukherjee began the meeting with a presentation of the Interdisciplinary Research Clusters (IRC) within the School of Natural Sciences & Mathematics (SNSM). Click here to view the SNSM Kickoff Event Photo Album

Pritish articulated the vision for the SNSM and introduced the five IRCs.  The SNSM Faculty Cluster Identification, which was also provided as a handout at today’s Kickoff meeting.  Among the topics of conversation:

• Strategic Cluster Hiring Plan
• Vision for application to multidisciplinary grant opportunities
• Cross-departmental collaborations for research and curriculum
• Partnerships with the School of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences, as well as other Colleges
• Partnerships with private industry such as Draper and Moffitt, as well as donors identified by CAS Development

Pritish concluded with the reminder that as a nation, there is a focus on STEM research and education, and moving toward more interdisciplinary model will strengthen us as School and prepare us for the future.

Chemistry Chair, Randy Larsen then presented the proposed organizational structure of the School. He spoke to the infrastructure and governance proposed for the School.  SNSM Standing Committees were formed in August 2008. Each of the Standing Committees met several times throughout Fall 2008 to discuss purpose and governance within the School.

SNSM email distribution lists were established to help facilitate communication with each of the SNSM Research Clusters, as well as each of the SNSM Standing Committees.

SNSM Research Clusters email distribution lists:
SNSM Biomedical Sciences SNSMBiomed@cas.usf.edu
SNSM Computational Theory and Practices SNSMComputational@cas.usf.edu
SNSM Global Change Sciences  SNSMGlobalChange@cas.usf.edu
SNSM Materials Science SNSMMaterialsScience@cas.usf.edu
SNSM Science, Technology and Mathematics Education SNSMTechnologyandEducation@cas.usf.edu

SNSM Standing Committees:
SNSM Core Facilities & Infrastructure SNSMCore@cas.usf.edu
SNSM Graduate Education SNSMGrad@cas.usf.edu
SNSM Tenure & Promotion SNSMTnP@cas.usf.edu
SNSM Undergraduate Education SNSMUG@cas.usf.edu

Through these efforts, we can better leverage the resources that already exist within the School and strategically grow the SNSM departments in a way that promotes interdisciplinary research and curriculum development.

The Fall 2008 SNSM kickoff event was very successful as it promoted good dialogue among colleagues and continues to grow a strong interest in interdisciplinary research clusters (IRC) in SNSM.  If you are interested in joining an IRC, please send your name and the name of the IRC you are interested in to Sandy Justice at sjustice@cas.usf.edu.