Weinstein named interim dean of the School of Science and Mathematics
June 20, 2016
Departing dean, Lok Lew Yan Voon advanced school through research and STEM collaboration
CHARLESTON, SC – The Citadel School of Science and Mathematics will have an interim dean beginning July 1. John Weinstein, Ph.D., was appointed to the position this week by The Citadel Provost and Dean of the College, Dr. Connie Book. Weinstein has served as the head of The Citadel Department of Biology for five years.
Weinstein’s current research interests are in the area of environmental toxicology. He has expertise in natural and anthropogenic stressor interactions, food web transfer of chemical contaminants, and risk assessment. He has investigated the impacts of hydrocarbon pollution on a variety of salt marsh animals and has assessed chemical contamination of storm water retention ponds. Most recently, the research he is directing with cadets is focused on the sources, fate, and effects of microplastic pollution in Lowcountry estuaries.
He will replace internationally-known, solid-state physicist and researcher, Lok C. Lew Yan Voon, Ph.D., who came to the college as dean of the school in 2012.
“Dr. Lok Lew Yan Voon’s successes as dean were many, including advancing the school’s contributions to the college’s long range LEAD Plan 2018 through the expansion of undergraduate research, as well as shepherding the initial efforts to establish a nursing program at The Citadel,” said Book.
Book added that Lew Yan Voon should also be commended for advancing the Lowcountry STEM Collaborative through a successful annual festival.
Lew Yan Voon is known in the science world as the “father of silicene” for work he and his student, Dr. Guzmán-Verri (now a faculty member at the University of Costa Rica), did to establish silicene as a future supermaterial. Silicine is a silicon-based nanomaterial that could someday make computers run 1000 times faster, leading to the development of a silicene chip. He will join the University of West Georgia as Dean of the College of Science and Mathematics.
Weinstein joined the faculty of The Citadel Department of Biology in 2000, where his primary teaching responsibilities have included human anatomy and physiology, mammalian physiology, and toxicology courses. He was promoted to department head in 2011.
Weinstein earned a B.A. in biology from Rutgers University, an M.S. in biology from East Carolina University, and a Ph.D. in biological sciences from the University of South Carolina. He served as a postdoctoral research scholar for the Miami University Department of Zoology, and has previously taught at Western Michigan University and Texas A&M University-Commerce. He will oversee the five departments within The Citadel School of Science and Mathematics which include:
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Health, Exercise and Sport Science
- Mathematics and Computer Science
- Physics
The School of Science and Mathematics is the second largest of the five schools at the college, with the School of Humanities and Social Sciences having the most students.
