Russell J. DiGate, Ph.D.

Russell J. DiGate, Ph.D., served as provost at University of the Sciences (USci) in Philadelphia from 2008–12, where he previously served as dean of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. He came to USci from the University of Maryland where he was chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences; associate dean for research and graduate education; and acting dean within the School of Pharmacy. Under his direction, grants and contracts increased from $8.9 million to more than $12 million in less than two years.

DiGate attended the University of Rochester, where he earned his B.A. in 1980, his M.S. in 1982, and his Ph.D. in Biology in 1986. As a student there, he was the recipient of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) pre-doctoral fellowship. He performed postdoctoral research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and received both Exxon and NIH postdoctoral fellowships. He began his academic career at the University of Maryland where he held a joint position within their School of Pharmacy and their Biotechnology Institute. He is an internationally recognized expert in the field of and DNA replication and received continuous support for his research from the NIH for more than 13 years. He has published in many well-respected journals such as Nature, The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Molecular Cell.

He is originally from East Hampton, NY, where he grew up on Three Mile Harbor and attended East Hampton High School. He currently resides in Forest Hills, NY.