Message from the Dean
Welcome to the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. At Carnegie Mellon, Dietrich is the home for research and education centered on humanity.
From how the brain gives rise to the mind, to how humans actually make decisions, to how they should make decisions, to how a collection of individual agents can form a society, to how societies have evolved over time from small tribes to great nations, to how languages and cultures vary and how they shape the human experience, to the amazing edifices of literature and science produced by these cultures, our college is the home to some of the most exciting interdisciplinary research and teaching in the world.
Our faculty do foundational and deep disciplinary research, collaborate across many disciplines, take on problems that are important to the world today, and share a passion for innovation in both research and teaching. Our students are trained in a wide array of disciplinary approaches, and they become involved in research early and often. They emerge from their experience at Carnegie Mellon able to communicate, think, learn, and understand the world in ways that will serve them for the rest of their life. Upon finishing their baccalaureate degree, they are among the most sought after liberal arts graduates in the world.
I invite you to browse our website — to explore our departments, interdisciplinary research centers, undergraduate programs and graduate programs. I invite you to read news stories about our faculty and students. They are relentlessly spectacular.
Cassidy R. Sugimoto
Bess Family Dean, Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences
About the Bess Family Dean: Cassidy R. Sugimoto
Cassidy R. Sugimoto is the Bess Family Dean and professor in the Marianna Brown Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. She is an internationally recognized scholar and academic leader whose work examines how research systems are organized, evaluated and resourced, and how they can be reshaped to advance equity, innovation and the public good.
Prior to joining Carnegie Mellon, Sugimoto served as Tom and Marie Patton School Chair and professor in the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology. There, she led a successful strategic and philanthropic initiative to name the school in honor of President and Mrs. Carter, securing $10 million in development funds, while supporting a $26 million renovation to house the newly named school. She oversaw growth in student enrollment, the development of a semester-long program in Washington, D.C., and the creation of new interdisciplinary undergraduate minors that connected public policy with emerging areas of science and technology.
Sugimoto’s expertise in the “science of science” and research evaluation has made her a trusted voice for institutions, funders and governments seeking to design more effective and inclusive research systems. She has advised national and international bodies on research policy, open science and research metrics, and from 2018 to 2020 served as program director for the Science of Science and Innovation Policy program at the National Science Foundation. Her work has illuminated how funding, collaboration, publication and assessment practices shape careers, fields and the distribution of opportunity in science.
An accomplished and widely cited scholar, Sugimoto has authored or co‑authored several books and book chapters and more than 200 peer‑reviewed journal articles. Her book “Equity for Women in Science” has been influential in demonstrating how structural conditions in scientific institutions limit participation and recognition, and in outlining evidence‑based strategies for change. She has served on editorial boards for leading journals across a range of disciplines, and has held leadership roles in major professional societies, including the presidency of the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics.
Sugimoto began her faculty career at Indiana University Bloomington, where she held appointments in the Department of Library and Information Science and later in the Department of Informatics in the School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering, and where she also served as director of graduate studies. She holds a bachelor’s degree in music performance, a master’s degree in library science and a Ph.D. in information and library science, all from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This trajectory — combining artistic training, information expertise and deep knowledge of research institutions — positions her to lead Dietrich College as it advances interdisciplinary scholarship, educates students for thoughtful engagement with complex societal challenges and strengthens its role in shaping the future of research and higher education.