October 6, 2025

Dear Members of the CMU Community:

I am pleased to announce that Carnegie Mellon University has selected Dr. Aviv Regev as the 2025 recipient of the Dickson Prize in Science. Dr. Regev is the head and executive vice president of Genentech Research and Early Development (gRED), where she oversees all aspects of the company's drug discovery and early development activities. She also served as a professor of biology at MIT and a member of the executive leadership teams of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

Academic leaders at CMU selected Dr. Regev for this award because of her highly impactful contributions to computational methodologies and resources for biological discovery. Her work pioneered computational methods in single cell and spatial genomics, which are widely used in biomedical research. As a founder and co-chair of the international Human Cell Atlas (HCA) project, she is helping to build a complete compendium of human cell types to advance our understanding of disease mechanisms.

Pittsburgh physician Joseph Z. Dickson and his wife, Agnes Fisher Dickson, established CMU's Dickson Prize in Science in 1969. CMU bestows it annually as one of its most prestigious awards, recognizing substantial achievements or sustained progress in engineering, the natural sciences, computer science or mathematics.

The award will be presented to Dr. Regev when she delivers the annual Dickson Prize in Science Lecture on Wednesday, March 11, as part of the University Lecture Series. Registration details will be shared before the event.

We look forward to welcoming Dr. Regev to our campus to celebrate her remarkable career and honor her exceptional impact on the scientific community.

Sincerely,

James H. Garrett Jr.
Provost and Chief Academic Officer

This is a change that is happening

October 1, 2025

Dear Members of the CMU Community:

For more than three decades, our CMU community has been showing care and concern for our neighbors in need of food in the greater Pittsburgh area. Today we are excited to kick off the 32nd Annual Food Drive, organized and sponsored by Staff Council.

Coming together to support Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank is not only a chance to provide meals and resources, but also to strengthen a bond between our campus and the community that sustains us. Each year, it is a delight to see our students, faculty and staff unite to make a meaningful difference in addressing food insecurity in our region. According to the Food Bank, CMU organizes the highest-grossing food drive of any organization in the city of Pittsburgh!

Our goals this year are to raise $100,000 and gather nonperishable food items (especially peanut butter) for the Food Bank. We also aim to collect 250 can openers for the CMU Food Pantry. The 2025 drive runs through Saturday, Nov. 8.

Donate to the Food Drive

Bring a donation to the following events for the chance to win prizes:

• Tartan Tuesdays (students only)
  Tuesdays, Oct. 7 and 21, noon-5 p.m., Alumni House
• Food Drive Fall Fest
  Wednesday, Oct. 29, noon-2 p.m., Merson Courtyard
• Benefits & Fitness Fair
  Wednesday, Nov. 5, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Cohon University Center Second Floor

Or drop off your nonperishable food and can opener donations here:

• Drive & Drop
  Tuesday, Oct. 21, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., East Campus Garage
  Nonperishables can also be dropped off at the Parking Office during business hours any day.

Visit the Staff Council Food Drive web page for more details, and contact Carole Panno with questions.

Thank you in advance for your continued generosity!

Sincerely,

Jim Garrett
Provost and Chief Academic Officer
Honorary Chair of the 2025 CMU Food Drive

Carole Panno
Associate Director of Development, University Advancement
Staff Council Food Drive Committee Chair

October 1, 2025

Dear Members of the Carnegie Mellon Community:

After 12 years of distinguished leadership, Richard Scheines, the Bess Family Dean of the Marianna Brown Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, has decided to step down at the conclusion of the 2025–2026 academic year. Having completed two highly successful five-year terms, Richard graciously extended his service for an additional two years to support the college and the university. At the end of this extended term, he will return to the Dietrich College faculty, and continue his deep commitment to CMU and to the students, faculty and staff he has led with such dedication since 2014. Dean Scheines joined CMU in 1988 and subsequently served as the head of the Department of Philosophy from 2005 to 2014 before being appointed dean in 2014.

Under Scheines’ guidance, Dietrich College’s reputation as a leader in interdisciplinary research and education has soared. Undergraduate applications have nearly tripled, and the college has become increasingly selective in its admissions. At the same time, the percentage of admitted students who choose to enroll in Dietrich College has risen dramatically. Its graduates are highly sought after by leading employers and top-ranked graduate programs.

Dean Scheines led the college through the creation and implementation of a new General Education program, which emphasizes the essential role of the humanities and social sciences in an increasingly technology-driven world. Hallmarks of the program include the Grand Challenge Seminars, and the Pittsburgh Summer Internship Program. 

Dean Scheines expanded the college’s academic footprint by contributing to the establishment of the Neuroscience Institute (2017), which is co-administered with the Mellon College of Science, and the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy and Technology (2023). He also contributed to the creation of several leading interdisciplinary research centers, including the Carnegie Mellon Sports Analytics Center, the Center for Black European Studies and the Atlantic, the Institute for Complex Social Dynamics, the K&L Gates Initiative in Ethics and Computational Technologies, and the STAtistical Methods for the Physical Sciences Research Center. Additionally, he established a dedicated fundraising team at the college that has secured over $100 million in new commitments in less than nine years to advance these and many other interdisciplinary initiatives.

His commitment to cross-disciplinary collaboration is further evidenced by his instrumental role in developing the Simon Initiative and in leading the design of the country’s first major in human-computer interaction. Dean Scheines’s dedication to fostering a vibrant intellectual community across the university is underscored by his leadership of and advisory support for initiatives such as Deeper Conversations and Democracy Day. He was recognized in 2024 with the Robert E. Doherty Award for Sustained Contributions to Excellence in Education. He also has helped lead successful searches for key positions, including the provost and chief academic officer, as well as the dean of the Heinz College. The university community is deeply grateful for his visionary leadership and lasting contributions.

To identify Dietrich College’s next leader, I have convened a search committee of faculty, staff and students from across the university. The committee will be co-chaired by Barb Shinn-Cunningham, the Glen de Vries Dean of the Mellon College of Science and professor of biomedical engineering, and Kevin Zollman, the Herbert A. Simon Professor of Philosophy and Social and Decision Sciences and director of the Institute for Complex Social Dynamics in Dietrich College.

The committee, in partnership with search firm DSG, Storbeck, will engage stakeholders to gather input on the role and candidates, aiming to fill the position by the 2026-2027 academic year. Visit the search website for details or to submit nominations or applications.

I am deeply grateful for Dean Scheines’s impact on Dietrich College and the university community. His innovation and collaboration will continue to inspire us as we look to the college’s next chapter as a leader in the humanities and social sciences. Please join me in thanking Richard for his exceptional service and leadership.

Sincerely,

James H. Garrett
Provost and Chief Academic Officer

Dear Colleagues,

As President Jahanian shared in his message last week, Carnegie Mellon is advancing a series of efforts guided by the recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Board on Enterprise Creation, Entrepreneurship and Industry Engagement and in line with input from faculty, staff and alumni. Together, these efforts already have strengthened how we support research, foster entrepreneurship and expand partnerships.

As a next step, we are launching a strategic initiative to modernize our research infrastructure: the university-wide systems, processes, structures and resources that enable CMU’s research and commercialization enterprise. The goals are clear — reduce administrative burden and improve service delivery throughout the entire research lifecycle for everyone engaged in supporting and conducting research at CMU.

Enhancing Our Support Systems

Over the last year, in collaboration with our schools and colleges, we conducted a thorough review of our current enterprise research systems and services. Additionally, we built out expertise on our university-level research support teams and selected vendors for two new enterprise software solutions for sponsored research and technology transfer:

Sponsored Research: We are making a significant investment to implement a new cloud-based research software solution, using the Huron Research Suite platform, that will replace SPARCS and modernize the entire grant management process from pre-award — including planning and proposal — through post-award accounting and compliance. Over the next three months, we will be working to develop a comprehensive technology roadmap to inform our implementation strategy. The first set of new tools will go live in 2026, with new functionality to support proposals, awards and agreements and more to follow in 2027.

Technology Transfer: We are upgrading to a new, comprehensive intellectual property (IP) management system. This solution, based on the Inteum Minuet platform, will provide enhanced capabilities to more effectively manage and leverage CMU’s significant IP assets. Testing is underway, and we anticipate a launch of the system by the end of the calendar year.

Elevating Our Understanding

Launching a new enterprise research software solution will require us to adapt processes and procedures and ensure that our university-wide research support teams are positioned and prepared to administer the new workflows. Such work necessitates a full understanding of current operations now as well as our future vision for CMU research infrastructure. In the coming months, members of our research community will have opportunities to share their insights and perspectives on our processes, procedures and operations. This input is critical to our success, and we encourage all to participate.

Planning for Success in a Shifting Landscape

The timing of this initiative will better position us to adapt to changes at the federal level, even more rapidly than our peers, as evolving agency priorities and new political dynamics are reshaping the contours of research investment and regulation.

One such example is a likely change to facilities and administrative (F&A) rates for universities, which President Jahanian detailed in his Aug. 20 message. We are continuing to work with the AAU and our peer universities to advance the Financial Accountability for Institutional Research (FAIR) model, which is meant to bring greater transparency and accountability to the true costs of research while strengthening the federal-university partnership. While this represents a promising way forward, implementing a model such as FAIR would require significant modifications to our systems, processes and structures. Accordingly, we are embedding the concepts of the FAIR model in the roadmap and implementation plan for our next generation research support system.

Staying Informed and Involved

We will host a webinar in October to share more about the federal research funding landscape and funding opportunities, the new research support system and our overall efforts to modernize CMU’s research support services. In the meantime, please visit the Building Next-Generation Research Support at CMU webpage for FAQs and updates.

Finally, we want to emphasize that this will be a collaborative journey. In addition to the October webinar, we will continue to engage our research community through group meetings and regular updates. Your perspectives are essential, and your participation will ensure that the systems, services and structures that we advance will meet the needs of our research enterprise.

Thank you for your continued partnership as we navigate this time of change and tremendous opportunity. Together, we will ensure that CMU remains a leader in research and innovation for decades to come.

Sincerely,

Theresa Mayer
Vice President for Research

Angela Blanton
Chief Financial Officer

Wednesday, September 24, 2025

Dear Faculty and Staff Colleagues,

Carnegie Mellon has always thrived by anticipating change and positioning ourselves at the forefront of discovery, creativity and innovation.

In that spirit, I write today with an important update — and offer a short summary below, followed by the full message.

Here are four key takeaways from this message:

1. In fall 2023, I convened a Presidential Advisory Board to evaluate enterprise creation, entrepreneurship and industry engagement. Over 18 months, the group engaged 150 stakeholders and delivered a set of recommendations to strengthen CMU’s leadership and reduce friction in discovery, translation and impact.
2. The PAB’s final report highlighted four priority areas: (1) more integrated, strategic industry engagement; (2) renewed approaches to technology transfer and commercialization; (3) modernized research support systems; and (4) expanded support for entrepreneurship and enterprise creation across the university.
3. CMU has already begun implementing many of these recommendations, including selecting a new enterprise research support system, reimagining research support staffing structures, streamlining industry partnerships, benchmarking IP policies, and expanding support for research-based start-ups.
4. Looking ahead, CMU will roll out a fully integrated research support system, update IP and licensing policies, align industry and federal partnerships, and strengthen the Swartz Center’s role as a university-wide hub for entrepreneurship — all in alignment with our Strategic Framework and long-term research priorities.

To help CMU maintain its edge in a rapidly evolving environment, in the fall of 2023, I convened a Presidential Advisory Board (PAB) on Enterprise Creation, Entrepreneurship and Industry Engagement. I charged the PAB with assessing CMU’s current strengths, identifying areas where we must be more agile and effective, and proposing strategies that will allow us to better support discovery, translation and a broader impact. Co-chaired by Vice President for Research Theresa Mayer and trustee Ron Bianchini, the PAB included faculty, staff, alumni, trustees and external partners. This group spent 18 months on a rigorous process that combined quantitative benchmarking with qualitative engagement, including interviews with 150 internal and external stakeholders. The result is a set of reflections and recommendations that provide a roadmap for strengthening our research and innovation ecosystem.

PAB Recommendations

I believe a great university shows its strength through a relentless pursuit of excellence, never resting on past achievements but continually adapting and improving. The PAB was designed in that spirit — to push us forward and build on CMU’s remarkable success so we are ready to lead as the pace of innovation accelerates. Importantly, the Advisory Board acknowledged the many things CMU is doing right — from our world-class research and entrepreneurial ecosystem to the collaborative spirit of our faculty and students — and urged us to build on these strengths as we look to the future. Today, the current political headwinds and shifting industry dynamics have made the PAB’s recommendations even more relevant and urgent.

In its final report to me, the Advisory Board shared thoughtful reflections and recommendations across four areas:
 

Industry Engagement: The Advisory Board acknowledged progress but also emphasized that industry today expects deeper, more holistic relationships with universities, and that these partnerships must operate at the speed of business. To attract investment from major companies and amplify our impact, CMU must develop a more integrated model for industry partnerships, reduce silos between colleges and central units, clarify roles, and address long-standing barriers such as in contracting and licensing.

Technology Transfer and Commercialization: The Advisory Board highlighted that CMU’s once-pioneering models now need renewal to remain competitive in a fast-moving innovation economy. To reduce friction and disincentives for technology transfer and startup creation, we should adapt our intellectual property (IP) frameworks — including licensing, equity and royalty-sharing terms — to better align with sector norms and investor expectations.

Research Support Services: Stakeholders interviewed by the PAB pointed to outdated systems and overly complex processes as barriers to collaboration and agility. To remain competitive, CMU must modernize with best-in-class enterprise systems, streamline processes to reduce administrative burden for faculty and staff, and recruit, develop and retain an industry-leading workforce.
 
Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Creation: The Advisory Board singled out the important role of our Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship as a campus-wide resource and recommended a more integrated approach that allows the center to better connect to, and coordinate across, CMU’s centers, programs and resources. The PAB encouraged us to expand end-to-end support to launch and grow investment-ready start-ups from high-potential research, and to establish a university-wide alumni mentor program to support campus entrepreneurs. The report also underscored the impact of the Swartz Center in fostering a vibrant regional innovation ecosystem.

Before describing the progress made and work ahead, I wish to acknowledge the extraordinary leadership of Theresa Mayer and the collaborative engagement of colleagues across our schools and colleges. The deans and associate deans of research have been indispensable partners in this work, helping to shape priorities and ensure that changes are responsive to faculty and student needs. I am also grateful to our Board of Trustees for its partnership, endorsement and continued guidance as we move this work forward.

Progress to Date

With the benefit of the Advisory Board’s recommendations, we have already begun to strengthen the foundation of our research enterprise.

• We have made significant progress on enhancing research support services. The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) has reorganized to improve alignment and better serve faculty, and we have selected a new enterprise system that will streamline proposal and award management and compliance, as well as provide greater visibility into research portfolios.
• We have pursued a more strategic approach to industry partnerships, increasing collaboration across schools and simplifying engagement pathways. These efforts have already led to growth in campus-wide industry partnerships.
• We conducted both internal and external stakeholder interviews and completed a comprehensive analysis of licensing terms and IP policies, benchmarking against 20 top-tier universities. We are currently formulating more creative models that facilitate transfer of knowledge and technology from our research labs.
• We have increased support for research-based startups, including early-stage ventures in AI, robotics and other deep tech. We consolidated Swartz Center’s Entrepreneurs-in-Residence program to better serve faculty and students and launched new events such as Lab-to-Market to bring together CMU founders with investors.
• We launched a faculty- and college-driven effort to meet rapidly evolving computing and data needs, including a successful pilot investment in a large cloud-based GPU cluster, which significantly expands our computing capacity and capacity for AI applications.

Next Phase of Work

We are entering an exciting new phase of this work. After a year of preparation, supported by countless faculty and staff in the schools and colleges, we are beginning the implementation of a new, fully integrated enterprise research support system that will streamline pre-award proposal submissions, award negotiation, regulatory compliance and post-award grant management. Vice President Mayer will share more details in the coming days about this system, as well as a comprehensive effort to upgrade the processes and structures that support our research enterprise. This work will not be easy, but tackling this will allow us to respond more quickly to opportunities, reduce administrative friction and enable deeper interdisciplinary collaboration across our research community. Vice President for Finance Angela Blanton and Vice President for Information Technology Stan Waddell both have been critical to developing this roadmap in partnership with the OVPR, and I am grateful for their contributions.

A number of strategic efforts inspired by the PAB are also underway:

• We are aligning industry engagement with federal partnerships, recognizing that our ability to partner effectively with both sectors will be critical to advancing national priorities and strengthening CMU’s impact. We are taking steps to be more strategic in how we coordinate across these channels — including examining how positions and functions might be enhanced — so that our industry and federal partnerships reinforce one another and maximize CMU’s impact.
• We are adapting CMU’s licensing terms to better reflect the evolving expectations of different industries and to take a more creative approach to how we structure agreements — ensuring we are both facilitating the transfer of technologies while preserving the interest of CMU researchers.
• We have assembled a university-wide task force to work with the Faculty Senate on updating our IP policy, which has not been revised in 40 years. This process is necessary to remain competitive, especially in an increasingly open-source environment.
• We are taking steps to strengthen the role of the Swartz Center in start-up creation and to enhance its impact as an integrated and campus-wide engine for entrepreneurship. These long-term strategic actions include expanding alumni mentorship networks, proof-of-concept and start-up gap funding, and faculty and student engagement.

These efforts are deeply connected to the goals of our Strategic Framework, which calls on us to expand the frontiers of research and discovery, become the partner of choice across sectors and industries, and strengthen CMU’s agility and resilience through aligned systems and empowered people.

This work is complex, and there is still much to do. But each step we take is strengthening our university — making CMU better prepared to lead the future of research and innovation. Once again, I wish to thank the Presidential Advisory Board and the Board of Trustees for their dedication and insights. Their contributions have been invaluable in charting a path forward for CMU.

Warm regards,

Farnam Jahanian
President
Henry L. Hillman President’s Chair

Read the President's original charge to the PAB  

The President’s Advisory Board for Enterprise Creation, Entrepreneurship and Industry Engagement was convened in Fall 2023 to assess CMU’s current enterprise creation, entrepreneurship and corporate engagement ecosystems as well as to make forward-looking recommendations that lay the groundwork for the future.

• President’s Message: Enhancing Enterprise Creation, Entrepreneurship and Industry Engagement at CMU (September 24, 2025)
• President’s Charge to Advisory Board Members [PDF] 

PAB Members

• Theresa Mayer, co-chair; Carnegie Mellon University, Vice President For Research
• Ronald Bianchini, co-chair; Microsoft Corporation, Distinguished Engineer; Member of the CMU Board of Trustees
• Mary Jo Dively, Carnegie Mellon University, Vice President and General Counsel; Secretary of the Corporation
• Raj Rajkumar, Carnegie Mellon University, George Westinghouse Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering
• Rebecca Nugent, Carnegie Mellon University, Head, Department of Statistics & Data Science and Fienberg Professor, Statistics & Data Sciences
• Sanjiv Singh, Carnegie Mellon University, Consulting Professor, Robotics Institute; Near Earth Autonomy, CEO & Co-Founder
• Jeanne Cunicelli, UPMC-Enterprises, President; Member of the CMU Board of Trustees
• Sam Reiman, Richard King Mellon Foundation, Director; Member of the CMU Board of Trustees
• Stephen Moret, Strada Education Foundation, President & CEO
• Luis Von Ahn, Duolingo, Founder & CEO
• Meredith Grelli, Carnegie Mellon University, Managing Director & Interim Executive Director, Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship; Assistant Dean of Entrepreneurship Initiatives, School of Computer Science; Director, Project Olympus; Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship, Tepper School of Business; Founder, Wigle Whiskey and Threadbare Cider & Mead
• Michael Donohue, Carnegie Mellon University, Tech Investor and Startup Mentor, Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship; WhatsApp, Co-founder
• Chris Martin, BNY, Senior Director, Responsible AI
• Parag Batavia, Carnegie Mellon University, Adjunct Instructor, Robotics Institute; Neya Systems, Founder

September 18, 2025

Dear Members of the Carnegie Mellon Community: 

I am writing to share that Isabelle Bajeux-Besnainou has informed me of her decision to step down as dean of the Tepper School of Business at the end of her term on July 1, 2026. Dean Bajeux-Besnainou was appointed to this role in 2020, and in 2022, she was installed as the Richard P. Simmons Professor of Finance. She will return to the faculty full-time to resume her teaching and research.

Dean Bajeux-Besnainou's leadership has been instrumental in advancing the Tepper School's strategic priorities, teaching and research mission. During her tenure, she successfully completed re-accreditation through 2030, expanded classroom and office spaces and grew executive education offerings. Her accomplishments also include evolving the master's program portfolio to adapt to a changing business environment and launching the Tepperspectives leadership platform.

Dean Bajeux-Besnainou guided the development of the Tepper School of Business’ 2024-2030 Strategic Plan, “Building the Intelligent Future”, which aims to elevate the school to new heights of excellence and innovation in business research and education. This plan, now in full motion, serves as a roadmap for the future, ensuring that the Tepper School is uniquely positioned to empower the next generation of business leaders to harness the potential of artificial intelligence, in particular large language models and other emerging technology.

Dean Bajeux-Besnainou's vision and leadership has enhanced the school's reputation and expanded its reach, setting the stage for a promising future. In recent years, the Tepper School has achieved notable recognition by U.S. News & World Report. In 2025, its full-time MBA program ranks No. 1 in Business Analytics, No. 2 in Project Management, No. 3 in Finance and No. 18 overall. The Online MBA program ranks No. 1 in Business Analytics and No. 3 overall. Additionally, the undergraduate program holds the No. 6 position.

I will soon announce the formation of a search committee to identify the next dean of the Tepper School. Please join me in thanking Isabelle for her service and leadership, and in congratulating her on her many achievements as dean of the Tepper School of Business.

Sincerely,

James H. Garrett Jr.
Provost and Chief Academic Officer