Virginia Tech has announced the search committee for a new vice president for research.

Robert Walters recently announced that he will retire as vice president for research after serving in the position for eight years. Walters joined the faculty of the Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering at Virginia Tech in 1985, and will retire with 30 years of service to Virginia Tech.

The Office of the Vice President for Research supports the university community and its missions by fostering quality research and scholarship, providing access to funding information, enhancing the ability to respond to national research priorities and pursue opportunities, encouraging and directing inquiry into new and emerging fields, promoting solutions to problems and advances of basic knowledge in diverse disciplines and through interdisciplinary cooperation, ensuring compliance with policies and procedures related to research, marketing faculty talent and university capabilities within the university community and to external audiences, and fostering partnerships with outside agencies and businesses.

Senior Vice President and Provost Mark McNamee will chair the search committee. Members of the search committee are:

  • Stephanie Adams, professor and head, Department of Engineering Education;
  • France Bélanger, R.B. Pamplin Professor of Accounting and Information Systems and chair, Commission on Research;
  • Richard Benson, Paul and Dorothea Torgersen Dean of Engineering;
  • Warren Bickel, professor of psychology and director, Addiction Recovery Research Center, Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute;
  • Laurie Coble, chief operating officer, Virginia Bioinformatics Institute
  • Francois Debrix, professor of political science and director of Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought;
  • John Dooley, chief executive officer, Virginia Tech Foundation
  • John McDowell, professor of plant pathology, physiology, and weed science;
  • Steve McKnight, vice president and executive director, National Capital Region;
  • X.J. Meng, University Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology;
  • Scott Midkiff, vice president for information technology and chief information officer;
  • Jean Peccoud, research professor, Virginia Bioinformatics Institute;
  • Nancy Ross, professor and head, Department of Geosciences;
  • Julie Speer, associate dean for research and informatics, University Libraries; and
  • Sue Teel, business manager, Department of Physics

Virginia Tech has engaged Isaacson, Miller to assist with this search. The search committee welcomes nominations for the position. For confidential inquiries, or to nominate an individual for this position, email Michael Baer, vice president at Isaacson, Miller, or call 202-216-2274.

Nominations also may be sent via email to Mark McNamee or by campus mail to 210 Burruss Hall (0132).

The position description and application process will be announced later this month and will be available at the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost website.

Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.

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