Presidential adviser Cole named interim provost

A senior adviser to the president of Mississippi State is serving as the university's interim provost and vice president for academic affairs during 1998-99 or until a permanent provost is named.

Cole

David Cole is a former associate academic vice president and physics department chair at the University of Alabama. He has been a special assistant to Malcolm Portera since Portera took office at the beginning of the year. Cole's interim appointment was effective July 1.

The search for a permanent provost and vice president for academic affairs is expected to continue during the current academic year, said search committee chair Leslie Bauman.

Cole retired from the University of Alabama in 1990 after 10 years as associate academic vice president. He also had been a faculty member in the Physics and Astronomy Department since 1962, serving as department chairman for more than a dozen years during that time.

Cole received a bachelor's degree in chemistry at Northwestern State University of Louisiana, a master's in mathematics education at George Peabody College, and a Ph.D. in physics at the University of Alabama. He served in the Army Air Corps in China, Burma, and India during World War II.