University of Iowa Executive Vice President and Provost Barry Butler and Jean Robillard, vice president for medical affairs, UI Health Care, announced the appointment of Donna Hammond as acting dean of the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, effective July 1, 2012.

Hammond will carry out the duties and responsibilities of the dean’s office until a new dean arrives. She succeeds Paul Rothman, who begins his role as the dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Md., and chief executive officer of Johns Hopkins Medicine on July 1.

Since 2010, Hammond has served as interim executive associate dean. She joined the college faculty in 2000 as a professor in the departments of anesthesia and pharmacology, and from 2006 through 2010 served as interim head of the Department of Pharmacology.

Hammond is an internationally recognized researcher in the neurobiology of pain pathways, and is currently the principal investigator on two grants from the National Institute of Drug Abuse totaling more than $3.7 million, and program director of the Interdisciplinary Training Program in Pain Research. She is a member of many professional organizations and serves on the editorial advisory board for the Journal of Pain.