Sarah Bolton is an American

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

and university administrator who currently serves as the president of

Whitman College Whitman College is a private liberal arts college in Walla Walla, Washington. The school offers 53 majors and 33 minors in the liberal arts and sciences, and it has a student-to-faculty ratio of 9:1. Whitman was the first college in the Pacifi ...

Walla Walla, Washington Walla Walla is a city in Walla Walla County, Washington, where it is the largest city and county seat. It had a population of 34,060 at the 2020 census, estimated to have decreased to 33,927 as of 2021. The population of the city and its two su ...

. She assumed this position on July 1, 2022. Bolton has been a strong supporter of Dreamers, students who are undocumented but born in the United States, Posse scholars, a program to "empower diverse groups of leaders who transform communities, this country and the world," and international students, especially when many could not return home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to her tenure at Whitman, Bolton was president of the

College of Wooster The College of Wooster is a private liberal arts college in Wooster, Ohio. Founded in 1866 by the Presbyterian Church as the University of Wooster, it has been officially non-sectarian since 1969 when ownership ties with the Presbyterian Church ...

Wooster, Ohio Wooster ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Wayne County. Located in northeastern Ohio, the city lies approximately south-southwest of Cleveland, southwest of Akron and west of Canton. The population was 27,232 at t ...

from 2016 to 2022, as well as dean and professor of physics at

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...

Williamstown, Massachusetts Williamstown is a town in the northern part of Berkshire County, in the northwest corner of Massachusetts, United States. It shares a border with Vermont to the north and New York to the west. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolit ...

from 1995 to 2016.

Education

Bolton received her B.S. in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

and

biophysics Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations. ...

from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

in 1988, and her Masters and PhD from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, in Physics. Her doctoral thesis is titled "Dimensionality dependence of indium gallium arsenide nonlinear optical response."

Career

Bolton came to Williams College as an assistant professor of physics in 1995, was promoted to associate professor in 2001, and full professor in 2007. She served as chair of the physics department from 2007 to 2010. She won Williams College's Outstanding Mentor Award for Fostering Inclusive Academic Excellence in 2009. Bolton served for more than two decades as dean of the college and professor of physics at

. As dean of the college at Williams, Bolton supervised academic advising and supported programs such as off-campus study, international student services, and the registrar's office. She was also active in creating policies and procedures for sexual assault prevention and response. In addition, she worked on projects addressing first-generation college students, and on efforts toward equity and inclusion on Williams’ campus.

Research and scholarship

Bolton's research and scholarship explores the properties of novel, nanostructured materials, which have features made up of only a few atomic layers. She uses ultrafast pulsed

laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fir ...

s to investigate the ways that energy is transferred in these quantum mechanical systems. She has published in physics journals such as ''

Physical Review A ''Physical Review A'' (also known as PRA) is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Physical Society covering atomic, molecular, and optical physics and quantum information. the editor was Jan M. Rost (Max Planck Ins ...

'' and ''

Physical Review B ''Physical Review B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics'' (also known as PRB) is a peer-reviewed, scientific journal, published by the American Physical Society (APS). The Editor of PRB is Laurens W. Molenkamp. It is part of the ''Physical Re ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bolton, Sarah Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American women academics Heads of universities and colleges in the United States Women heads of universities and colleges Brown University alumni UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni 21st-century American women scientists