Professor Beth Meyerand, who joined the Department of Medical Physics in 1998, will depart at the end of February to become the vice provost and dean of the Graduate School at the University of Rhode Island.
Meyerand’s 28-year career at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been anchored in a passion for mentoring students and developing leaders. She mentored 27 graduate students during her tenure in the medical physics department. It was early on that she found her calling supporting young scholars.
This brought her to pursue an open chair position in the Department of Biomedical Engineering in 2010. She served as chair of that department until 2016 and recalls that position fondly. It was exciting to be a part of a newer department that was still finding its place on campus.
“It was a really fun time because the department was young, so I dealt with a lot of hiring,” said Meyerand. “We were still growing and facilitating conversations between faculty and staff about what they wanted the department to look like in 10 years. What areas did they want to have strength in? Do we want more biomechanics faculty, biomedical imaging faculty, or biomedical electronics? Where do our strengths lie? It was really fun to help with those conversations.”
In addition to building a team, Meyerand also enjoyed curriculum development, handling students’ concerns, professional development, and fundraising. This positive experience helped her prepare for a broader leadership role, which came in 2020 when she became vice provost for faculty and staff affairs at UW-Madison. This campus-wide position gave her an opportunity to explore areas outside STEM and learn more about arts and humanities, which was something she found both challenging and rewarding.
In 2024, Meyerand then became the associate dean of the Graduate School, providing institutional leadership for graduate education across campus. Her focus areas include admissions and academic planning, enhancing faculty mentoring of graduate students, and graduate student mentor and mentee training. After years of working with graduate students in various capacities, Meyerand’s advice to the next generation is to embrace a spirit of curiosity and explore outside their specific areas of study.
“Generally, what I recommend to students is that graduate school is your time to learn and to explore different facets of knowledge,” she said. “I recommend that students learn broadly. I would continue to advise them to improve their communication skills in any way possible. And this is not just medical physics students. All graduate students should take advantage of courses to learn to be more effective and articulate writers, oral communicators, and learn how to read critically. And those are really important skills. No matter what field you go into, they’re critically important.”
And while she is excited about the opportunities ahead at the University of Rhode Island, Meyerand says the University of Wisconsin is a place that feels like family.
“It is the kind of place where your colleagues feel like family. It’s just very special in that way. You know, it’s the people. That’s why I haven’t left. It had to be a very special opportunity for me to leave UW-Madison. We lift each other up. I’ve had difficult situations in my professional life, my personal life, and my colleagues in the department and on campus have always been there for me to help me out, lift me up, and support me. And I like to think that I’ve done the same for them. And that’s really unique. There aren’t many places like that.”