Steve A.N. Goldstein ’78 appointed Brandeis provost

Noted pediatrician and medical researcher will become university’s top academic officer

Photos/Mike Lovett

Steve A.N. Goldstein '78, director of the Institute of Molecular Pediatric Sciences at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, is Brandeis' new provost.

President Fred Lawrence announced today that the board of trustees accepted his recommendation and appointed Steve A.N. Goldstein ’78, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and director of the Institute of Molecular Pediatric Sciences, as provost of Brandeis University.

“Steve’s distinguished academic and professional record, his deep affection for Brandeis and his powerful intellect will help to shape the future of the university for years to come,” said Lawrence. “An accomplished researcher and scientist, Steve also has a passion for the arts and humanities. Steve exemplifies everything that is great and inspiring about Brandeis.”

As provost, Goldstein will be the university’s chief academic officer and the second-ranking member of the administration. Many of the university’s senior officers will report to him, including the dean of arts and sciences, the deans of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management and Brandeis International Business School, the registrar, the chief information officer and the vice president for global affairs.  In addition, the provost will oversee the Office of the Arts, the Rose Art Museum and more than 30 research centers and institutes.

Goldstein will succeed Marty Krauss, Ph.D. ’81, who announced last August that she would step down this month after eight years as provost.

Goldstein grew up in New York City and came to Brandeis in 1974 as an undergraduate. He earned a B.A. and M.A. in biochemistry in 1978, graduating Phi Beta Kappa.

“Both as an undergraduate and as a postdoctoral trainee at Brandeis, I received the precious gift that the school bestows so naturally: a personalized education,” Goldstein said. “Here, students are given a remarkable opportunity to pursue their dreams. I cannot think of a more exciting challenge than returning to Brandeis to help others find new ways to shape the world in which we live.”

Goldstein, who holds an M.D. and Ph.D. in immunology from Harvard University, is a leading authority on the molecular mechanisms underlying normal cardiac function and sudden life-threatening diseases of the heart. He did his pediatric internship, residency and a clinical fellowship in pediatric cardiology at Children’s Hospital Boston, and in 1993 he completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at Brandeis with biochemistry professor Christopher Miller.

“I still retain a vivid memory of Steve as a top student in the very first class I taught at Brandeis, in 1978,” said Miller. “His enthusiasm for the geeky stuff I teach was satisfying for a new teacher, and the energy palpably bursting out of him was exhausting just to observe.

“These characteristics had only intensified when he returned to Brandeis with an M.D./Ph.D. in hand, to carry out a wildly successful postdoctoral research period in my lab.  Still enthusiastic, still exhausting! I'd tell him: work hard — your only job is to make me famous — and he did,” added Miller.

From 1993 to 2004, Goldstein was on the faculty at the Yale University School of Medicine. He moved to the University of Chicago in 2004 to become chairman of the department of pediatrics and physician-in-chief at Comer Children’s Hospital. While at Chicago he also co-founded the Institute for Translational Medicine. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and received the E. Mead Johnson Award for pediatric research in 2001. From 2002 to 2007 he was editor-in-chief of the Quarterly Review of Biophysics.

Goldstein and his wife, Emily Novick, a writer, met during the fall of 1980 while both were spending time on the Brandeis campus. Goldstein was completing a research project; Novick was working as a residence counselor in Massell Quad while she finished a graduate degree in creative writing from Boston University.

Goldstein and Novick have three children: Rebecca, a theatrical set designer in New Zealand; Nicolas, a graduate student at the University of Rochester; and Daniel, a sophomore at Washington University in St. Louis.

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