University president Morton Schapiro will solicit help from a Faculty Screening Group in hiring a new provost, he said in an email last week.

The news came after current provost Dan Linzer announced his departure at the end of the next academic year. Linzer has been University provost since 2007, following five years as dean of the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. He joined Northwestern in 1984 as an assistant professor and has taught biochemistry, molecular biology and cell biology.

“The individual selected must have strong intellectual curiosity and a track record of exceptional scholarship,” Schapiro said in the email. “In addition, Dan’s successor must have the academic leadership experience necessary to work effectively with the University’s deans and faculty.”

Schapiro told The Daily in an email he consulted with leadership at NU to pick a group of 11 “distinguished faculty in a variety of fields” who will assist him in the search process. Members of the group include: Faculty Senate president Laurie Zoloth, chief of cardiology at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Clyde Yancy, and Institute for Policy Research director David Figlio.

Schapiro said the group would convene later this month and that he hoped to select a new provost by fall or winter. In the meantime, he encouraged the NU community to send in suggestions for Linzer’s replacement.

“I greatly appreciate all that Dan has accomplished … and will look for someone who can build on those many achievements,” Schapiro wrote in the email. “That person will be someone who, like Dan, will work beside me to help Northwestern move forward in its continued rise as one of the best private research universities in the world.”

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