David Vanden Bout, Interim Executive Vice President and Provost

Before serving as interim provost, David Vanden Bout became dean of the College of Natural Sciences in 2021, overseeing  implementation of the academic mission for the largest college at UT Austin, supporting nearly 13,000 undergraduate and graduate students in residence, more than 700 faculty, 1,200 staff and numerous stakeholders across a wide range of subject areas in the sciences, mathematics and technology. With research expenditures in excess of $190 million, the college that Vanden Bout leads spans campuses across Texas, including the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas and the McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis. In his time as dean, Vanden Bout oversaw initiatives to bring University research strengths to the forefront across campus and society, including in areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and life sciences. Under his leadership, UT launched a new Center for Generative AI and a Texas Quantum Institute, and UT scientists secured a record number of multi-institution federal grants for research, while the college also had record philanthropic fundraising in support of new initiatives such as the Texas Field Station Network. For students, Vanden Bout helped shepherd new efforts to improve graduation outcomes, promoted initiatives linked to career success after college, extended new mentoring and wellness offerings to students and supported expansions of experiential learning opportunities. In public outreach, Vanden Bout and the college partnered in initiatives with state and local partners to help prepare students in K-12 and community-college settings for success in STEM. The Wildflower Center moved under the umbrella of the College of Natural Sciences and the Texas Memorial Museum reopened and modernized as the Texas Science & Natural History Museum under Vanden Bout’s leadership. 

He is the winner of multiple research, teaching and leadership awards, including an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, a Cottrell Scholar award, a Research Innovation Award, a President’s Associates Teaching Excellence Award, a UT Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award, the Precursor’s President’s Award and GlobalMindED’s Inclusive Leader Award, recognizing the leading role he played in raising four-year graduation rates from around 50% in 2014 when he became an associate dean for undergraduate education to 78% today in the college.  

Vanden Bout earned his B.S. in chemistry from Duke University in 1990 doing undergraduate research with Prof. Richard MacPhail. He got a Ph.D. in chemical physics in 1995 from The University of Texas at Austin under the supervision of Mark Berg. He went on to work as a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow in Paul Barbara’s laboratory at the University of Minnesota. He started as an assistant professor in the then-Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UT Austin in 1997. He was promoted to the rank of associate professor in 2003 and the rank of full professor in 2013. He was appointed associate dean for undergraduate education in the College of Natural Sciences in 2014, senior associate dean in 2019 and interim dean in both 2018 and 2021 before being named dean of the college.