Carolyn (Biddy) Martin has served as Cornell's chief academic officer since 2000. She began her Cornell career in 1983 as an instructor of German studies and women's studies, making her way up the academic ranks to full professor, chair, associate dean and, finally, provost.

Robert Barker/University Photography

Provost Biddy Martin moderates a "Great Gatsby" book discussion with a group of students in 2006. During her tenure, Cornell began the New Student Reading Project.

During her tenure as provost, Martin has left a multifaceted legacy that includes overseeing the nearly completed $150 million Joan and Sanford Weill Life Sciences Building, as well as increasing the stature of humanities research and education at Cornell. She has served on countless committees and boards and has led many strategic initiatives both for the university and for individual departments and colleges.

In January this year, she announced a sweeping new financial aid initiative, starting next year, to eliminate need-based loans for all undergraduate students from families with incomes under $75,000, making it possible for new students to graduate debt-free.

In 2007 Martin gave her first Academic State of the University address, outlining Cornell's accomplishments, priorities and challenges as a world-class research and land-grant institution. Also during her leadership, she established the Provost's Excellence in Research Awards, targeted at recently tenured faculty likely to receive outside offers of employment.

Other highlights of Martin's career at Cornell include:

• Leading a successful faculty salary-improvement program;
• Developing the university's fundraising priorities for the $4 billion capital campaign;
• Overseeing Cornell's interdisciplinary Life Sciences Initiative;
• Leading successful searches for deans of the Colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Human Ecology, Veterinary Medicine and Architecture, Art and Planning, School of Hotel Administration, Cornell Law School, ILR School, the Graduate School and the Johnson School;
• Establishing an Academic Council, comprising four deans and faculty leaders from the physical sciences, life sciences, social sciences and humanities;
• Undertaking a faculty salary gender equity study that produced a regression analysis approved annually by the provost and deans;
• Appointing and chairing a committee that conducted a major study of faculty work/life with particular focus on the experiences of women faculty;
• Co-chairing the University Diversity Council;
• Authorizing and serving as principal investigator for a National Science Foundation ADVANCE grant proposal to enhance recruitment and retention of women in science and engineering;
• Appointing Cornell's first vice provost for undergraduate education;
• Starting a common reading project for incoming students, recruiting more than 200 faculty volunteers to lead small-group discussions with entering students at the beginning of orientation week. The project has become a collaborative activity with the city of Ithaca;
• Appointing a vice provost for land grant affairs to help redefine the meaning of land-grant status in the 21st century and to enhance relationships with the State University of New York and New York state;
• Hosting the first symposium to bring Weill Cornell Medical College faculty together with Cornell-Ithaca scientists for discussions of possible collaborative research;
• Establishing and developing a budget for Cornell's Center for a Sustainable Future;
• Increasing research support for humanists;
• Commissioning and chairing a task force on ethnic studies programs, resulting in the addition of two faculty lines in Asian-American and Latino studies and the reorganization of the American Indian Program;
• Instituting a full-time deputy provost position devoted to the coordination of social sciences research, infrastructure and teaching; and
• Appointing the first vice provost for social sciences.

Provost, 2000-08

Professor, German Studies and Women's Studies, 1997-2008

Senior Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, 1996-2000

Chair, German Studies, 1994-97

Associate Director, Women's Studies Program, 1993-94

Associate Professor, German Studies and Women's Studies, 1991-97

Assistant Professor, German Studies and Women's Studies, 1985-91

Cornell Instructor, German Studies and Women's Studies, 1983-85

University of Wisconsin, Lecturer, 1980-83