Introducing the New CGS Board Chair: Michael Solomon

The Council of Graduate Schools is pleased to announce the new Chair of the Board of Directors, Michael Solomon. Solomon has served on the board since 2023 and became its chair-elect earlier this year. He began as Board Chair on July 1, 2025 after Chevelle Newsome stepped down to become president of CGS.

Solomon is Dean of the Rackham Graduate School, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs – Graduate Studies, and Bernard J. Lucci Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan. While dean, Solomon has advanced initiatives that have included a new expectation of mentoring plans in doctoral programs; an emphasis on the mental health and well-being of graduate students; the creation of internship programs to promote doctoral career diversity; and pursuit of best practices in holistic admissions.

Solomon’s faculty research interests are in the self-assembly, rheology, and optical properties of soft matter. He was the 2011 recipient of the Soft Matter Lectureship, awarded by The Royal Society of Chemistry’s journal Soft Matter; he is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2016), the American Physical Society (2017), and the Society of Rheology (2021).

Prior to joining the University of Michigan, Solomon received his B.S. in chemical engineering and economics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Melbourne, Australia.