James Bullock officially installed as USC Dornsife dean

As James Bullock was officially installed Thursday as the 23rd dean of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, he recalled his father bringing home a telescope one night, setting it up in the yard of their Ohio home and pointing it to the moon.

The future astrophysicist was just 5 years old; the telescope’s impact on the self-proclaimed science and math nerd was profound.

“It helped me discover a passion for something that ultimately led me to where I’m standing right now,” Bullock said from the stage of the Town and Gown ballroom on the University Park Campus. “Isn’t this what we all want for our kids? We want them to discover something that inspires them, something that they can build upon, and, yes, hopefully a career. But more importantly, to have a fulfilled and happy life.”

A professor of physics and astronomy and an authority on galaxy formation and the nature of dark matter, Bullock came to USC after previously serving as dean of the School of Physical Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. He had been a member of the UCI faculty since 2004.

The afternoon installation ceremony was attended by USC President Beong-Soo Kim, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Andrew T. Guzman, most of the deans of USC’s 22 other schools, and many of Bullock’s USC Dornsife colleagues — including Professor Moh El-Naggar, who served as interim dean until Bullock’s arrival seven months ago.

In his remarks, Kim described Bullock as “the perfect person to steer Dornsife into the future.”

“He has brought incredible energy, vision, leadership and good cheer to Dornsife college,” Kim said. “We are living through a time of tremendous change — societal [and] technological. So, it’s a really good thing that a Dornsife education is timeless, equipping our students with the skills and knowledge necessary to take on anything.”

USC Dornsife dean: Preparing students for the future

Kim said Bullock has displayed “curiosity, care and integrity” as a leader.

“James recognizes the power of interconnectedness, not just at a cosmic level, but also at the level of universities, colleges and people,” Kim said. “Just as remarkable as his academic research is the way that James brings compassion and perspective to everything he does. We see it in the way he empowers people, as a leader, colleague, teacher and mentor, to reach their full potential.”

USC Dornsife consists of 36 academic departments, divided among four divisions: humanities, social sciences, life sciences and the division of mathematics and physical sciences. Its English department has had two Pulitzer Prize winners in the past 10 years, and its chemistry department is one of only eight in the country with multiple Nobel laureates.

“As we position ourselves to be the premier liberal arts college in the country, it’s important that we focus on a phrase that keeps coming up in discussions of higher education: ‘return on investment,’” Bullock said.

While the dean said he believes the long-term return on investment from the liberal arts has always been its selling point, he also acknowledged that with the rise of artificial intelligence, the future of work and society itself is as uncertain as it has ever been.

“Our broader goal is to innovate in the education space and focus our attention on providing students with a modern approach to the liberal arts, true to foundational principles, but updated for the students and job markets of today,” Bullock said.

He touted USC Dornsife’s piloting a new offering called “Intensives,” which are focused, three-course sequences designed to document valuable, employment-focused skills and proficiencies. They will appear on student transcripts and provide evidence of valuable skills to future employers.

A lifetime of learning and teaching for USC Dornsife dean

Bullock began building a liberal arts foundation for himself early on. While studying physics and mathematics at The Ohio State University, he also took courses in English, history and philosophy. This expanded his interests and sparked a lifelong passion for the liberal arts.

“Every moment we have is special, every connection, every act of creation and discovery,” Bullock told attendees. “To study ourselves through the humanities and social sciences is to study the miraculous. To study the rest of creation through the natural sciences is equally profound.”

After he graduated from Ohio State, Bullock went on to earn a master’s degree and a doctorate degree in physics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, followed by postdoctoral fellowships at Ohio State and Harvard University.

He has served as chair of the University of California Observatories’ Keck Time Allocation Committee for Extragalactic Science, director of the University of California multicampus Southern California Center for Galaxy Evolution, and director of the UCI Center for Cosmology. Bullock is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a fellow of the American Physical Society.

Kim praised Bullock, who has appeared many times on television, for understanding the importance of making complex scientific concepts accessible to all.

The dean demonstrated this ability at his installation when he explained: “Human beings are made of atoms. Those atoms are forged in the hearts of stars, and they are now assembled in way that allows us to look up at the night sky, ask big questions, write extraordinary novels, love and collaborate, and to seek to understand something of our place in the universe.”

USC Dornsife dean a family man

Bullock’s family sat in the front row during Thursday’s ceremony. In his remarks, he thanked them for making sacrifices to attend. He thanked his wife, Blake Bullock, who is in her first week as the new executive vice president of The Aerospace Corp. He also shared that his youngest daughter, Susie, was missing rowing practice while his oldest daughter, Vivian, was missing a water polo tournament game to attend.

Kim said that he saw Bullock the family man in action during their first dinner together, when “someone was spamming his cellphone.” “It was Susie asking when one of her parents was going to pick her up from school,” Kim said, drawing laughter from the audience.

“Without missing a beat, James quickly called Blake, figured it all out and got Susie picked up,” Kim said. “I realized that James had all of the crisis management skills we look for in all of our deans.”