Joseph M. Jez has been named vice dean of graduate studies in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, effective July 1, announced Feng Sheng Hu, the Richard G. Engelsmann Dean of Arts & Sciences.

Jez is the Spencer T. Olin Professor of Biology and former chair of the biology department. He brings a distinguished record of research and teaching, strong industry connections, and extensive experience overseeing complex organizations and graduate programs.

He will succeed Sophia Hayes, who concludes her term as Arts & Sciences’ inaugural vice dean of graduate education at the end of the spring semester. 

“I would like to thank Sophia for her hard work envisioning, launching, and growing the Office of Graduate Studies,” Hu said. “She recruited a team of talented staff members who are committed to empowering our graduate students to achieve their ambitions, learn from talented mentors, and pursue innovative research and scholarship. Our graduate programs are stronger thanks to her efforts.”

Hayes’ achievements include establishing the Office of Graduate Studies, with an emphasis on improving the quality of graduate student life, enhancing opportunities for communication between students and the administration, and cultivating opportunities for graduate students to hone mentorship and communication skills. She also launched the Dean’s Award for Graduate Research Excellence, the first research award of its kind for graduate students in Arts & Sciences.

“It’s been an honor to have an opportunity to re-envision how graduate education and training can best be supported in Arts & Sciences, through recruiting an amazing team of talented staff, to ensure our graduate students thrive personally and professionally,” Hayes said. “I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved in the past five years, and I know the office is in great hands with Joe.”

As vice dean of graduate studies, Jez will serve on the dean's senior leadership team and oversee school-level policies for graduate education, working closely with departments and programs and collaborating with the Provost’s Office. He will help guide strategic initiatives in areas such as recruitment, mentoring, professional development, and program innovation, with a focus on student success, academic distinction, and the national and international visibility of our graduate programs.

“We had an outstanding group of candidates for this position, but Joe really stood out for his work at the intersection of academia and industry, including entrepreneurship and experiential teaching,” Hu said. “His skillset, combined with those of our talented OGS staff, will take our graduate programs to new heights.”

Jez has held numerous academic and leadership positions since he joined the university as an assistant professor of biology in 2008. He guided the department’s nearly 50 tenure- and teaching-track faculty, 90 postdocs and staff members, 50 graduate students, and 700 undergraduates through the COVID pandemic, helping to develop new tools for communication, remote and hybrid teaching, and safe research.

"Graduate education defines and builds the next generation of scholars, but how we mentor and prepare graduate students is changing. That can be frustrating, challenging, and exciting all at once — working with faculty, students, and staff to navigate those changes is my goal."

A highly regarded educator and mentor, Jez developed and continues to teach one of Arts & Sciences’ most popular Ampersand programs: The Biotech Explorers Pathway. He has also supported undergraduates as director of the Amgen Scholars and Beckman Scholars programs, and he has bolstered graduate education as a DBBS program director and as a leader of a T32 training grant proposal involving the School of Medicine and 15 industry partners.

“Graduate education defines and builds the next generation of scholars, but how we mentor and prepare graduate students is changing,” Jez said. “That can be frustrating, challenging, and exciting all at once — working with faculty, students, and staff to navigate those changes is my goal.”

Jez brings a valuable combination of academic and industry experience to the role. He earned his bachelor’s in biochemistry with a minor in English from Penn State University and his PhD in biochemistry and molecular physics from the University of Pennsylvania. He went on to study at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, work as a scientist at a biotech company in California, and started his research group at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.

The Jez Laboratory seeks to understand how environmental changes remodel biochemical pathways in plants at the molecular, cellular, and organism levels to engineer these systems to address agricultural and environmental problems.

He has received significant recognition for his research and teaching, including a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineering (PECASE), a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professors award, and Fulbright Senior Specialist Award, as well as being named a fellow of the American Society of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

“I'm looking forward to meeting graduate students from across Arts & Sciences and learning about their journeys as scholars and how I can help them,” Jez said.