Board of Directors

Joseph Bruno

Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, Wesleyan University

Joseph W. Bruno, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost at Wesleyan, is a graduate of Augustana College, Rock Island, IL, where he was initiated into Phi Beta Kappa. He completed his graduate work at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, earning a PhD in Chemistry in 1983, then performed postdoctoral research at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. In 1984 Bruno joined the Chemistry Department at Wesleyan University as an Assistant Professor. He was subsequently promoted to Associate Professor with tenure and then Professor. He served as the Chairman of the Chemistry Department, was later named Dean of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, then assumed his present position as chief academic officer at Wesleyan. Bruno’s research is in the area of organometallic chemistry, and he strives to synthesize and utilize transition metal compounds with catalytic applications. He has received numerous grants for research, for pedagogical development, and in support of university programs in the sciences, and he is the author of over sixty papers and patents. As Dean, and now as Provost, he has recognized the value of collaborative approaches to educating students about science, and he worked with faculty to aid their development of interdisciplinary courses such as “Science and Film; Defining Human Identity,” and “Science and Art,” and “Making the Science Documentary.”