Paul Deluca pictured in 2014 throughout his tenure as provost of UW–Madson. As a college member and administrator, DeLuca championed the College of Drugs and Public Well being and helped form UW–Madison’s analysis enterprise. Picture: Bryce Richter

Paul M. DeLuca Jr., emeritus professor of medical physics and former provost of the College of Wisconsin–Madison, died on Oct. 30. He was 79.

DeLuca arrived at UW–Madison in 1971, and throughout greater than 4 many years, he served as chair of the Division of Medical Physics in addition to vice dean for analysis and graduate research for the College of Drugs and Public Well being. He served as provost and vice chancellor for tutorial affairs from 2009 till his retirement in 2014, working with chancellors Biddy Martin, David Ward and Rebecca Clean.

After finishing his doctorate in nuclear physics on the College of Notre Dame, DeLuca labored at UW–Madison as a postdoctoral fellow and assistant scientist earlier than he joined the college in 1975. Through the years, his function within the faculty and throughout campus continued to broaden. He spent 10 years as departmental chair, adopted by broader administrative roles.

DeLuca was born in 1944 in Troy, New York. The son of a neurosurgeon, he knew from a younger age that he wished to pursue a profession in medication however mentioned he wished to “come at it from one other course.” He targeted on the connection between physics and medication.

“Each time I did a physics experiment, it was a unique experiment,” he mentioned. “Nobody might predict the outcomes. Every thing was a shock, and I actually loved that.”

As an administrator and champion of the varsity and UW–Madison’s analysis enterprise, DeLuca helped form the college’s future. He helped significantly broaden the analysis, coaching applications and services of the Division of Medical Physics throughout his time as chair. As vice dean for the College of Drugs and Public Well being he was instrumental within the growth of the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Analysis and different analysis initiatives.

“Paul was a spectacular chief, colleague and pal. He served as the varsity’s vice dean for analysis and graduate schooling with unimaginable knowledge, effectiveness, heat and nice humor,” says Robert N. Golden, dean of the varsity. “I used to be delighted when he turned provost and deeply valued the chance to work with him in advancing the imaginative and prescient and missions of our college.”

As provost, DeLuca guided main management modifications on the college, enjoying a lead function within the recruitment and hiring of 10 new deans and administrators for numerous faculties, schools and institutes. He helped develop applications to advance the standard of undergraduate schooling, launch modern huge open on-line programs and provoke and advance Discovery to Product, or D2P, a significant partnership between UW–Madison and the Wisconsin Alumni Analysis Basis that focuses on entrepreneurship and expertise switch.

“Together with his wide-ranging pursuits, he clearly loved the function of provost, the place he had the chance to work with the complete campus,” says Eden Inoway-Ronnie, chief of employees to the provost and who labored with DeLuca whereas he served in that function. “He was captivated with many issues, and I do know he cared deeply in regards to the schooling and analysis alternatives we offer right here at UW–Madison.”

As a researcher, DeLuca targeted all through his profession on the connection between physics and medication. He’s recognized for his research on the consequences of high-energy particle radiation on people. He authored and co-authored greater than 75 analysis papers, many specializing in the assorted functions of physics to the analysis and remedy of most cancers. As a trainer, he supervised almost 50 graduate college students and postdoctoral fellows.

He obtained the William D. Coolidge award from the American Affiliation of Physicists in Drugs in 2016 and the UW Medical College Folkert O. Belzer Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. He was a Fellow of AAPM and in 2007 was named UW–Madison Rennebohm Analysis Professor.

Previous to retiring from the college in 2014, DeLuca mirrored on his work bringing physicians and scientists collectively.

“Effectively, I feel that [my work] introduced the medical faculty constituents into a real mental pair,” he mentioned. “In different phrases, it was not a couple of scientists hanging round a bunch of clinicians seeing sufferers. It turned a group of physicians and scientists working collectively to advance well being care. And I feel I had a good bit to do with that.”

A memorial service shall be held Saturday, Nov. 4 in Pennsylvania. A Madison service shall be held at a later date, to be decided.

The DeLuca household asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Paul DeLuca, PhD, Scholar Fund, endowed in 2020 by a number of of DeLuca’s former medical physics college students. Donations to the fund straight profit college students and prolong a legacy that can help medical physics for years to return.