Peter Riley, Long-Time Associate Dean for Research, Retires

After 50 years of service to the university, physicist retires from his duties fostering the construction and renovation of the college's research buildings and labs.

Peter Riley, experimental physicist and long-time associate dean for research and facilities for the College of Natural Sciences, retired this month after 50 years of service to the university.

Riley joined the university in 1962 as an assistant professor of physics. In 1976 he was promoted to full professor.

As an experimental high-energy nuclear and particle physicist, Riley’s research interests were focused on rare kaon decay measurements and relativistic heavy ion collider experiments at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York.

He has also served in a number of administrative capacities in the field of physics, including program director with the National Science Foundation and chairman of the college’s Department of Physics.

Since 1995, he has served as associate dean for the College of Natural Sciences, where he has been responsible for working with faculty and administrators across the college and university to design and implement laboratory renovations and the construction of new science buildings.

“Peter's job has been one of the most critical in this college,” said Linda Hicke, dean of the college. “Without Peter and his group's work we would not be the powerful college that we are today, with excellent facilities for research and world class teaching laboratories.”

During his tenure as associate dean, Riley was a design team member for the construction of the Moffet Molecular Biology Building (MBB) in 1997, the Neural and Molecular Sciences Building (NMS) in 2005, the Faulkner Nano Science and Technology Building (FNT) in 2006, the Dell Pediatric Research Institute Building (DPRI) in 2007 and the Norman Hackerman Building (NHB), which opened in 2011.