Vice Provost Nathan Urban to take position at Lehigh

Nathan Urban will leave his position as vice provost for Pitt’s graduate studies and strategic initiatives this summer to become the provost of Lehigh University.

According to a statement released by Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor Ann Cudd, details regarding the search for his successor will be announced in the coming weeks.

Urban started working in the Office of the Provost in 2015 as a vice provost for special projects and later became vice provost for graduate studies and strategic initiatives in 2017. He has also served as a professor and associate chair of the department of neurobiology, the associate director of the Brain Institute and co-director of the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition.

During his time as vice provost for graduate studies and strategic initiatives, Urban established several programs in order to bring graduate students across the University closer together such as monthly newsletters, social media platforms, events and office hours. He also started the graduate studies retreat — a daylong event that brings together administrators, faculty and students from 14 of Pitt’s graduate and professional schools. More recently, Urban served as a co-chair of the Plan for Pitt 2025 committee.

According to the statement, he is also regularly involved with the Postdoctoral Association and has assisted members in promoting resources from across the University to postdoctoral students.

Urban is also a Pitt alum and received a bachelor’s of science in neuroscience, math and philosophy and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University.

Urban worked for Carnegie Mellon from 2002 to 2015 before coming to Pitt. He began as a professor in the biological sciences department after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany. He later became the Frederick Schwertz Distinguished Professor of Life Sciences and head of the biological sciences department from 2010 to 2014. Urban served as CMU’s interim provost from 2014 to 2015.