Transition in the Senior Vice Presidency for Research

November 24, 2020

Dear University Colleagues:

We are pleased to announce that we launch today a national search for Rutgers’ next Senior Vice President for Research (SVPR). The SVPR will report to the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and will be a member of the President’s cabinet. This individual will work closely with the EVPAA, the chancellors, and the academic leaders and researchers on the four campuses to continue elevating our research agenda and help us take our rightful place among the very best academic institutions in the country, and indeed, the world.

We are grateful that M. Bishr Omary, Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Research at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, has agreed to chair the Search Committee. The committee’s full membership, which draws upon the diversity of our disciplines and campuses, is available here. A dedicated email address has been created for your use (SVPRsearch@rutgers.edu) so that you may send us your thoughts regarding this vitally important search, as well as your nominations of qualified candidates. The search committee will engage in additional outreach to ensure feedback from the community informs the process. Updates on the search process will be available at academicaffairs.rutgers.edu/search-senior-vice-president-research.

Excellence in the pursuit of discovery and breakthroughs in knowledge—whether the humanities and the arts, the sciences and allied professions, or health care—is the essence of a top research university like Rutgers. A measure of the institution’s research productivity is its overall research funding and expenditures, which for Rutgers, continues to exceed that of all other New Jersey institutions of higher education combined. The scale of research continues to expand significantly. In fiscal year 2020, more than $2.6 billion worth of proposals were submitted by Rutgers researchers, while sponsored research from all sources totaled $747 million awarded to 1,702 projects. In FY 2020, Rutgers research translated widely to a rich innovation portfolio, with nearly 200 invention disclosures, over 100 global patents issued, and scores of licenses signed with external ventures and industry. With the search for the new SVPR under way, we seek to recruit an exceptional leader who can further elevate Rutgers’ research in breadth, stature, and substance.

As we begin this search, we would be remiss if we failed to express our gratitude to S. David Kimball, Ph.D., for leading the Office for Research for the past two years before announcing his intent to retire in Spring 2021. David joined the Office for Research in 2011, spearheading its translational science and research commercialization efforts for several years before assuming the role of SVPR. We appreciate David’s efforts to enhance research administrative support and efficiency at the Office of Research, while being an active campus resource for research continuity during the challenging disruptions of the pandemic.

Thank you, as always, for all you do for Rutgers.

Jonathan Holloway
President and University Professor

Prabhas V. Moghe
Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Distinguished Professor