# Arthur B. Ellis

Arthur B. Ellis (born 1951) is an American inorganic chemist and research administrator. Formerly Director, Division of Chemistry, U.S. National Science Foundation, he has held numerous academic postings, serving as provost at City University of Hong Kong, vice chancellor for research at the University of California, San Diego, and as the Meloche-Bascom Professor of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is known as an educator and for his work in applied chemistry on metals and semiconductors.

## Early life and education

Born in Oakland, California in 1951, Arthur Baron Ellis was a studious child who enjoyed chemical experiment from an early age, though he credits his high school and college teachers as the source of his "inspiration" for his field.
After obtaining his BS from Caltech in his native California, Ellis went on to graduate work MIT in Cambridge, MA. His initial research was in optimizing semiconductors and electrolytes to build better solar panels, in the laboratory of Mark S. Wrighton. This work earned Ellis his first patent.

## Career
### Teaching career at University of Wisconsin-Madison

Ellis went straight from graduate work at MIT to an assistant professorship at Wisconsin, where he distinguished himself via his imaginative fusion of active research and classroom education. He was known for eye-catching in-classroom experimentation, levitating magnets and exposing undergraduates to high-level scientific equipment. “We can't have a static curriculum when research is so dynamic,” he is quoted as saying. Ellis would receive numerous commendations for his teaching at UW-M, including one of the inaugural NSF Director’s Distinguished Teaching Scholar Awards and an NSF Director’s Meritorious Service Award. Facing what he believed was a "culture of a traditional American college chemistry course [that] was also off-putting to many students," Ellis was part of a coterie of scientists who advocated "cooperative learning methods and more sophisticated assessment and evaluation tools with the intent of turning these courses into pumps rather than filters."
Himself a highly collaborative researcher, Ellis published approximately 200 research papers in leading scientific journals while at UW-M, advancing through the ranks to sit for a decade as the Meloche-Bascom Professor of Chemistry. In this role he advanced the work of Ph.D. candidates who went on to leadership roles in American science, including chemists Peter K. Dorhout, Gerald Meyer, Catherine J. Murphy and many others.

### National Science Foundation (2002-2006)

Ellis was director of the Division of Chemistry at the National Science Foundation (NSF) from 2002 to 2006 in what was initially intended to be a two year term that extended to four. The Division of Chemistry at that time was one of the five divisions that made up the Math and Physical Sciences Directorate at NSF.
While at NSF, Ellis, together with colleagues, continued his focus on integrating education and research development programs to enable the USA's national chemistry community to "pursue large-scale research projects, enhance diversity, and advance bilateral international collaborations."

#### Cyber-enabled Chemistry

In his role as Director in the early 2000s, Ellis found himself at a transitional stage in research, The internet was in a phase of rapidly expansion of its capabilities, and it was not yet clear how integral these would become to all phases of academic research. Ellis, in a forward-thinking role, actively promoted cyber-enabled chemistry, the use of the cyber-infrastructure "to enable new chemical research and education activities through grid computing, community databases, remote access to instrumentation, electronic support for geographically dispersed collaborators, and other Web- and grid-accessible services." In this capacity, Ellis oversaw creation of the Chemistry Research Instrumentation & Facilities: Cyberinfrastructure & Research Facilities (CRIF:CRF) program, providing millions of dollars of grant money to academic institutions across the United States in fields as varied as Process Informatics Modeling and first-principle quantum dynamics methods.

#### National Initiatives

As Director, Ellis's portfolio included the establishment of Chemical Bonding Centers, intended to support long-term projects and transform chemistry research; Discovery Corps Fellowships, which supported nontraditional postdocs along with sabbaticals directed at service-oriented projects; and undergraduate research collaboratives to "enable college students to gain experience in chemical research."

### Roles in Academic Administration

Ellis arrived at the University of California, San Diego in 2006, moving into academic administration. As vice-chancellor for research, Ellis controlled the university's research budget. With colleagues, he "established a new research office to enhance the campus’s infrastructure for research, promote interdisciplinary scholarship and create global research partnerships. He also helped launch campus-wide initiatives in sustainability, stem cell research and research cyber-infrastructure."
Ellis served as provost at City University of Hong Kong from 2010 to 2016.
In 2016, Ellis, "having succeeded in a range of positions in academic administration at a range of institutions and exercised throughout a collaborative approach," was named Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies at the University of California Office of the President.
He retired from this position in 2019.
Currently, Ellis serves as a senior advisor at Elsevier, a scientific publisher and data analytics company.

## Recognition

Ellis received numerous awards, fellowships and patents over the course of his active career including:
* 1997 George C. Pimentel Award, sponsored by Union Carbide Corporation
* 1989 Guggenheim Fellowship (Chemistry)
* 1987 NSF Director’s Distinguished Teaching Scholar Award
* 1985 H.I Romnes Research Fellowship, UW-M
* 1981 Sloan Research Fellowship
* 1980 American Chemical Society Exxon Solid-State Faculty Fellowship

## Publications

Ellis has authored and coauthored hundreds of publications in his role as a researcher, mentor, and educator. Titles include:
* Chemistry ConcepTests: A Pathway to Interactive Classrooms (Prentice Hall: 2001) Clark R. Landis, George C. Lisenky, Arthur B. Ellis
* Build a Better CD Player: How Can You Get Blue Light from a Solid (ChemConnections: 1999, 2004) Bradley Moore, George C. Lisensky , Arthur B. Ellis, Herbert Beall
* Materials Chemistry: An Emerging Discipline (American Chemical Society: 1995) Leonard V. Interrante, Arthur B. Ellis, Lawrence A. Caspar
* Teaching General Chemistry: A Materials Science Companion (American Chemical Society: 1993) Arthur B. Ellis et al

## External Links

* Research Gate Arthur B. Ellis’s research while affiliated with University of Wisconsin–Madison and other places
* Chemistry Tree