Rice University Provost's Office records (Gordon, Lane, Kinsey, Auston, Minter, Levy), 1980-2004

Dr. William E. Gordon’s appointment as provost and vice president of Rice University began July 1, 1980. He retired July 1, 1985, although he continued to serve as provost until the next provost, Dr. Neal Lane, reported to work in spring 1986.

Dr. Neal Lane served as Provost of Rice University from 1986-1993. He joined the Rice Physics Department in 1966 and was made full professor in 1972. He was made chairman of the department in 1977. While chair, Lane spent 1979-80 serving as director of the division of physics at the NSF. He left Rice in 1984 to become Chancellor of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. He then returned to Rice to take on the job of Provost.

Dr. James Kinsey, Dean of Rice University's Wiess School of Natural Sciences, was named interim provost by university president Malcolm Gillis in July 1993 and served until 1994. The provost position had been vacated by Neal Lane when he left Rice to become director of the National Science Foundation.

Dr. David Auston was named provost by university president Malcolm Gillis in August 1994. He was Columbia's dean of engineering and applied science and the Morris and Alma Schapiro Professor of Engineering. He was member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. He earned his undergraduate and master's degree from the University of Toronto and his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.

English Professor David Minter was appointed by President Malcolm Gillis to serve as interim provost in Spring 1999. Then current provost David Auston left Rice on July 1, 1999 to take the presidency of Case Western University.

Dr. Eugene Levy was provost for Rice University from 2000-2010. After retiring as Provost, Levy returned to Rice to teach in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and serve as a senior fellow for science policy and education at the Baker Institute for Public Policy.