James V. Maher
Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor
Dr. James V. Maher was appointed Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh on July 1, 1994, following three years of service as chair of Pitt’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, and twenty-four years as a member of the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Maher earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Notre Dame in 1964. He earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from Yale University in 1965 and 1969, respectively. Prior to joining the University of Pittsburgh faculty as an assistant professor in September 1970, Dr. Maher served as a post-doctoral research associate in the Physics Division of the Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Illinois.
During his tenure at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Maher has served as director of the University’s Scaife Nuclear Physics Laboratory, as a longstanding resident fellow in the University’s Center for the Philosophy of Science, and as a visiting scientist at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, the Kernphysisch Versneller Institute in Groningen, the College de France in Paris, and the Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago. Elected a fellow of both the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Dr. Maher has published numerous papers in refereed journals on the fields of nuclear physics (up through 1980) and statistical condensed matter physics (since 1980). He has presented numerous invited talks at topical conferences and physical society meetings.
Dr. Maher is chair of the University Planning and Budgeting Committee, co-chair of the University’s Facilities Planning Committee, and a member of the Board of Trustees’ Information Technology Committee at the University’s partner institution, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, as well as serving on the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse’s Scientific Infrastructure Investment Committee. He serves on numerous national and local professional society committees and boards, including St. Vincent Seminary’s Board of Regents and the board of the MPC Corporation, for which he alternately serves as President and Vice President. He is on the WQED Multimedia Board of Directors, as well as the boards of the Pittsburgh Technology Council and the Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative. He is a commissioner of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, where he also serves on the Executive Committee. He is on the Board of Directors of BioOne.
He was a member of the Association of American University’s (AAU) Intellectual Property Task Force and a co-author of the formative 1999 report “Intellectual Property and New Media Technologies: A Framework for Policy Development at AAU Institutions.” He served on the AAU/National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC) Task Force on Accreditation, which developed a set of principles adopted by the AAU and NASULGC and accepted in modified form by the Council on Higher Education Accreditation. He was invited by the AAU and Association of Research Libraries to participate in writing the influential Tempe Principles on Scholarly Communications, a set of principles designed to guide the transformation of the scholarly publishing system.
Appointments
- Provost and Senior Vice-Chancellor, University of Pittsburgh (1994 - Present)
- Professor of Physics, University of Pittsburgh (1980-Present)
- Fellow, Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh (1983-Present)
- Chair, Dept of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh (1991-1994)
- Associate Professor of Physics, University of Pittsburgh (1974-1980)
- Director, Scaife Nuclear Physics Laboratory, University of Pittsburgh (1979-1980)
- Assistant Professor of Physics, University of Pittsburgh (1970-1974)
- Postdoc Research Associate, Argonne National Laboratory (1968-1970)
Professional Affiliations
- American Association for the Advancement of Science, Fellow
- American Physical Society, Fellow
- Sigma XI (Vice President of University of Pittsburgh Chapter, 1987-1990)
- American Association for Crystal Growth (Treasurer of Pittsburgh Chapter 1985-1988; President 1988-1991; Researcher of the Year Award, 1996)
Service
- Association of American Universities (AAU) Intellectual Property Task Force of Chief Academic Officers, 1998-1999
- NASULGC/AAU Task Force on Accreditation, 1999-2001
- President and Chair of Board, MPC Corporation, 1994-96, 1998-00, 2002-2004, 2006-Present
- Magee-Womens Health Research Foundation Scientific Advisory Board, 1996-2005
- Chair, American Physical Society Membership Committee, 1999-2000; Member 1997-2000
- National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC) Chief Academic Officers 1995-Present; Executive Committee 2003-Present
- Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) Commissioner, 2003-Present; Chair, External Review Committee Stony Brook University, 2004; Chair, External Review Committee Rutgers University, 2008
- Board of Directors and Executive Committee, Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative, Inc., 1996-Present
- Board of Directors, Carnegie Science Center, 2007-Present
- Board of Directors, BioOne, 2006-Present
- Board of Regents, St. Vincent Seminary, March 1999-Present
- Board of Directors, WQED Multimedia, 2003-Present
- Board of Editors, Fractals (World Scientific), 1993-1997
- Board of Directors, Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society, 1995-2001
- Executive Committee, Catholic Commission on Intellectual and Cultural Affairs, 1996-98
Selected Publications/Presentations
- Measurement of the Second Virial Coefficient for the Interaction of Dilute Colloidal Particles in a Mixed Solvent, M.L. Kurnaz and J.V. Maher, Phys. Rev. E55, 572 (1997).
- Capillary Wave Studies of Polystyrene-b-poly (methacrylic acid) Diblock Copolymer Films at the Air-Water Interface, J.V. Gandhi, J.V. Maher, K.A. Shaffer and T.M. Chapman, Langmuir 13, No. 6, 1592 (1997).
- Capillary Wave Studies of Mutiblock Polypeptide Copolymers at the Air/Water Interface, J.V. Gandhi, J.V. Maher, K.A. Shaffer, and T.M. Chapman, Langmuir 13, 5933 (1997).
- Deposition Rate Effects on Rough Surfaces Formed by Sedimenting Particles, K.V. McCloud, M.L. Kurnaz, and J.V. Maher, Phys. Rev. E56, 5768 (1997).
- Dissolving Interfaces in the Presence of Gravity, D. H. Vlad and J. V. Maher, Phys. Rev. E59, 476 (1999).
- Effect of Lattice Defects on Hele-Shaw Flow over an Etched Lattice, E. L. Decker, Jordi Ignes Mullol, A. Baratt and J. V. Maher, Phys. Rev. E60, 1767 (1999).
- Velocity Jump Instabilities in Hele-Shaw Flow of Associating Polymer Solutions, D. H. Vlad, Jordi Ignes Mullol and J. V. Maher, Phys. Rev. E60, 4423 (1999).
- Tip-splitting Instabilities in the Channel Saffman-Taylor Flow of Constant Viscosity Elastic fluids, D.H. Vlad and J.V. Maher, Phys. Rev. E61, 5439 (2000).
- Understanding the Role of Academic and Student Affairs Collaboration in Creating a Successful Learning Environment, ed. Adrianna Kezar, Deborah J. Hirsch, and Cathy Burak. Reviewed by J. V. Maher, Journal of College Student Development. 44.891: 568-71 (2003).