Since January 2025, the Glen de Vries Dean of the Mellon College of Science is Barbara Shinn-Cunningham,[4] an American bioengineer and neuroscientist.

As the college grew and scientific research advanced, the Carnegie Mellon College of Engineering was split off in 1970, and the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science split off in 1988.

[5] The administration of MCS, as well as most of its biological sciences and chemistry faculty and research labs, and the college's library, are based in the Mellon Institute, which was constructed in 1937.

The neoclassical building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, and was designated as a National Historic Chemical Landmark in 2013 by the American Chemical Society.

[6] The college's physics and mathematical sciences departments are based in Carnegie Mellon's main campus in Wean Hall, a Brutalist building constructed in 1971.