Following the departure of former Faculty of Arts & Science dean Antonio Merlo, President Linda Mills announced that Michael Purugganan will serve as the interim dean of FAS in a May memo. Purugganan, who assumed the position on July 1, has been with the university since 2006, serving in teaching and administrative roles at both the Washington Square and Abu Dhabi campuses.
The FAS dean oversees NYU’s entire Arts & Science department, which includes the College of Arts & Science, the Graduate School of Arts & Science and the Liberal Studies program. In an interview with WSN, Purugganan discussed his time at NYU, his decision to accept the interim position and what he hopes to accomplish for the future of the school.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
WSN: What brought you to serve as the interim dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science?
Purugganan: It is because of the strong belief in the mission of the Arts & Science unit. We are tasked with advancing human knowledge and teaching the next generation that human knowledge. The other is because I am just so proud of my colleagues and students here, and I want to make sure that the leadership of Arts & Science continues to thrive and flourish in whatever they do. I was recruited by NYU 20 years ago. It’s really changed the trajectory for my career, and I owe a lot to Arts & Science at the university. It was really about giving back and being of service, especially in this kind of critical moment for higher education.
Originally from Manila, Philippines, Purugganan earned a Master of Arts in Chemistry from Columbia University in 1986 and a Ph.D. in Botany from the University of Georgia in 1993.
Before working at NYU, Purugganan spent nearly 11 years at North Carolina State University as a researcher and professor of genetics, as well as co-chairing the National Science Foundation Biological Sciences Advisory Committee on multiple students’ thesis papers about gene evolution.
Purugganan joined NYU’s biology department in 2006 as a professor, and was an affiliate faculty member at both NYU Abu Dhabi and the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. He worked as the director of NYU’s Center for Genomics and Systems Biology from 2010 to 2012, then co-founded the same center at the Abu Dhabi campus and was its co-director until 2017.
He served as dean of science from 2012 and 2019, and has been the academic director of 19 Washington Square North — the Abu Dhabi Institute at NYU’s Washington Square campus — since 2022.
WSN: What research are you working on right now?
Purugganan: I’m a plant biologist interested in understanding how crops have evolved under humans to adapt to different environments. We hope that our work is also helpful for breeders and develops crops that may be useful for the future under climate change. Right now, at my lab in Abu Dhabi, along with most plant biologists in the field, we’re trying to understand how crop species evolved about 12,000 years ago from their wild ancestors.
While the Trump administration continues to slash hundreds of millions of dollars in research funding — including the Supreme Court’s recent ruling to allow a $783 million cut to health research funding — Purugganan said he will provide all resources possible to financially support faculty and student research.
WSN: How will the school support research in the wake of potential funding cuts?
Purugganan: We have an Arts & Science Office of Research, and an advice team that is constantly monitoring that situation and trying to put in place resources to help us, faculty, but also our general research mission. We have been supporting research in the natural sciences, but we’ve also set aside funds to support research in the social sciences in order to give them the resources and support they need to able to write grants not only to the federal government, but to private foundations and other places where we can get resources that would support our research mission.
Purugganan is one of several leadership appointments in recent months. Since June, the university has announced Polly Trottenburg as dean of the Wagner School of Public Policy, Melody Goodman as dean of the School of Global Public Health, Rubén Polendo as dean of the Tisch School of the Arts and Gérard Ben Arous as director of the Courant Institute.
WSN: What do you hope to achieve as interim dean of FAS?
Purugganan: While we’re waiting for a permanent dean to be appointed, we want to make sure that our faculty are given all the support they need to be able to advance their research. Our university has three major missions: to teach the next generation, to advance human knowledge and to be of service to the community and society. We want to make sure all three pillars are strong, and in this era of uncertain research funding, we want to make sure students continue to be strong in that pillar of the university.
Contact Jennifer Jesus at [email protected].