Professor of Chemistry Christopher Cheatum joined the college administration as the new Associate Dean for the Natural, Mathematical, and Social Sciences in January 2022. Chris has been with the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences since 2003. Among Chris's many accomplishments, he was the recipient of the 2014-2015 Collegiate Teaching Award and was recognized as a 2011 CLAS Dean's Scholar. Chris has a strong record of funded research and has supported numerous graduate students in their pursuit of a PhD. Chris’s research group uses lasers to study the motions of proteins on fast time scales, as short as one millionth of a billionth of a second. They discovered a relationship between these motions and chemical reactions that take place inside of proteins, and they are using these insights to develop a new approach for drug discovery. He has also served in a number of leadership roles, including serving as a member of CLAS Executive Committee and the Faculty Assembly Chair.