Nancy Ortins Savage, Ph.D.

Nancy Ortins Savage Headshot
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

Office of the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
Education

NRC Postdoctoral Fellow, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD

Ph.D., Chemistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH

B.S. Chemistry, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY

About Nancy

Dr. Savage was named provost and senior vice president for academic affairs in May 2024. She was appointed following a national search in which more than 1,200 potential candidates were engaged during an extensive search process. Dr. Savage was appointed after excelling in an interim capacity for nearly two years, distinguishing herself as a collaborative and data-driven leader.

During her interim appointment, Dr. Savage launched the University Interdisciplinary Collaborative to support the development and oversight of cutting-edge and market-responsive cross-college academic programs; implemented policies and processes that support student success; and created the Core Curriculum Innovation Committee. She also launched a new periodic program review process and partnered with the Division of Student Affairs to help enhance the Academic Integrity Policy.

In addition, she has led the executive committee for the University’s strategic plan implementation, developed an inclusion advocate program for faculty searches, and overseen the selection of several important positions in academic affairs, including the University Librarian, Assistant Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity Initiatives, Director for the Center for Teaching Excellence, and Makerspace Coordinator.

Dr. Savage served as deputy provost for six months prior to being appointed interim provost. She previously was associate dean of the Tagliatela College of Engineering, chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical & Biomedical Engineering, and coordinator of the University’s chemistry program. She joined the University as an assistant professor in 2005, earning tenure and promotion to associate professor in 2011, and promotion to rank of professor in 2017.

She was awarded a National Research Council postdoctoral fellowship that supported her work studying gas sensors at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. She earned her Ph.D. in chemistry from The Ohio State University and her B.S. in chemistry from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Earlier in her career, Dr. Savage taught at the University of Hartford, the University of Connecticut, the University of Saint Joseph, and Quinnipiac.

Professor Appointments
  • Professor, University of New 51¶ºÄÌ, Fall 2017 - Present
  • Associate Professor, University of New 51¶ºÄÌ, Fall 2011 - Spring 2017
  • Assistant Professor, University of New 51¶ºÄÌ, Fall 2005 - Spring 2011
Published Books and Articles

Abigail Freyer*, Nancy Ortins Savage‡, Electrospun Silica Nanofiber Mats:Effects of Sol Viscosity and Application to Thin Layer Chromatography. In The Science and Function of Nanomaterials, ACS Symposium Series volume 1183.  Harper-Leatherman, H., Solbrig, C. Ed.; American Chemical Society: Washington D.C., 2014.

 

Bishwanath Dutta, Sourav Biswas, Vinit Sharma, Nancy Ortins Savage, S. Pamir Alpay, Steven L. Suib, "Mesoporous Manganese Oxide Catalyzed Aerobic Oxidative Coupling of Anilines To Aromatic Azo Compounds," Angew. Chem. 2016, 128, 2211.

 

Abigail Freyer*, Nancy Ortins Savage‡, Electrospun Silica Nanofiber Mats:Effects of Sol Viscosity and Application to Thin Layer Chromatography. In The Science and Function of Nanomaterials, ACS Symposium Series, Harper-Leatherman, H., Ed.; American Chemical Society: Washington D.C., Accepted.

 

Michael A. Collura, Shannon Ciston, and Nancy Ortins Savage, "Effect of freshman chemistry on student performance in sophomore engineering courses." American Society for Engineering Education. American Society for Engineering Education, 2011.

 

Nancy Ortins Savage, Samuel Daniels, Michael Collura, Inverting the Lecture Paradigm for a Multidisciplnary Course, American Society for Engineering Education Northeast Section Conference 2010 Proceedings, May 7-8, 2010.  

 

Nancy Ortins Savage, "Gas sensing composites of metal oxides with vapor-deposited polypyrrole", Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 143 (2009) 6-11  

 

Nancy Ortins Savage, Sonya Roberson, Greg Gillen, Michael J. Tarlov, Steve Semancik, "Thermolithographic Patterning of Sol-Gel Metal Oxides on Microhotplate Sensing Arrays Using Organosilanes", Analytical Chemistry, 75 (2003) 4360-4367.

 

N. Savage, B. Chwieroth, A. Ginwalla, B.R. Patton, S.A. Akbar, P.K. Dutta "Composite n-p Semiconducting Titanium Oxides as Gas Sensors" Sensors and Actuators B, 79 (2001) 17-27.

 

N.O. Savage, S. A. Akbar, P.K. Dutta "Titanium Dioxide Based High Temperature Carbon Monoxide Sensors", Sensors and Actuators B, 72 (2001) 239-248.

 

N.J.Ortins, T. Kruger, P.K. Dutta, "Recent Advances in Raman Spectroscopy of Heterogeneous Catalysts" in Analytical Applications of Raman Spectroscopy, M. Pelletier, Editor, Blackwell Science Limited, 1999.

 

M.Vitale, N.B. Castagnola, N.J. Ortins, J.A. Brooke, A. Vaidyalingam, P.K. Dutta, "Intrazeolitic Photochemical Charge Separation for Ru(bpy)32+ Bipyridinium Systems: Role of the Zeolitic Structure", Journal of Physical Chemistry B 1999, 103, 2408-2416.

Funding
  • NSF-MRI, Award # 1531585, MRI: Acquisition of an X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) System, Principle Investigator: Nancy Savage, Co-Principle Investigator, Saion K. Sinha, 2015-2017, $197,376.
  • University of New 51¶ºÄÌ Faculty Research Award, 2012-2013, $2000
  • University of New 51¶ºÄÌ Faculty Research Award, 2011-2012, $1800
  • University of New 51¶ºÄÌ Faculty Research Award, 2010-2011, $2000
  • University of New 51¶ºÄÌ Faculty Research Award, 2009-2010, $2000
  • University of New 51¶ºÄÌ Faculty Research Award, 2008-2009, $1950
  • University of New 51¶ºÄÌ Faculty Research Award, 2007-2008, $1875
  • University of New 51¶ºÄÌ Faculty Research Award, 2006-2007, $2000
  • Connecticut Space Grant Consortium Faculty Research Award, 2006-2007, $6000
  • University of New 51¶ºÄÌ Summer Faculty Fellowship, 2006.
Awards

University of New 51¶ºÄÌ "Excellence in Service" Award, 2013.

Connecticut Quality Improvement Award "Silver Prize" for The Summer Institute For Young Women, 2008.

Courses Taught
  • CHEM 1115, CHEM 1116 General Chemistry I and II
  • CHEM 2211 Quantitative Methods of Analysis with Lab
  • CHEM 2221 Instrumental Methods of Analysis with Lab
  • CHEM 3332 Physical Chemistry 2
  • CHEM 3333, CHEM 3334 Physical Chemistry I and II Lab
  • CHEM 4412 Chemistry Seminar
  • EASC 2213 Materials in Engineering Systems

In the Media

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