Coltrane posts videos, calls for feedback on VP Research finalists

Surveys much be completed by 5:00, Wednesday, March 9.

Candidate A: February 23-24, 2016 – Roger Cone

• Roger Cone CV
• Roger Cone Letter
• Interview Schedule
• Recording of Presentation
• Survey

Candidate B: February 25-26, 2016 – David Conover

• David Conover CV
• David Conover Letter
• Interview Schedule
• Recording of Presentation
• Survey

Candidate C: March 1-2, 2016 – Patricia Bauer

• Patricia Bauer CV
• Patricia Bauer Letter
• Interview Schedule
• Recording of Presentation
• Survey

Candidate D: March 3-4, 2016 – Edmund Seebauer

• Edmund Seebauer CV
• Edmund Seebauer Letter
• Interview Schedule
• Recording of Presentation
• Survey

Roger Cone (Vanderbilt). Public presentation in Room 202 Alumni Center, 3:30-5:00 Tuesday 2/23.

• Roger Cone CV
• Roger Cone Letter
• Interview Schedule

… I helped turn a small human genetics program within my department into the transinstitutional Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, with my recruitment of Dr. Nancy Cox as new director, and I created a trans-institutional obesity research program here that spearheaded the Tennessee state plan for obesity prevention. I also recruited a new chair of Cell Biology, Dr. Ian Macara, and have participated in other high level recruitments, including Chair of Biochemistry, Chair of Anesthesiology, Chair of Pharmacology, and our recently recruited Vice Provost for Research, Dr. Padma Raghavan. I have served on the executive board of the university’s recent strategic plan, and successfully advocated, along with my colleagues, for a required immersion experience for all Vanderbilt undergraduates, akin to the Princeton senior thesis. I am currently chairing the committee tasked with designing the year-long research immersion experience for Vanderbilt undergraduate students in the natural sciences, and am working with the Chancellor to extend this unique opportunity at Vanderbilt to students from our partner HBCUs. I am also in my fourth year as master of one of the ten freshman houses at Vanderbilt, and am particularly proud of winning Faculty Partner of the Year last year, in part for my outreach efforts with our highly diverse student body. My membership in the National Academy of Sciences and service on the National Academy’s Board on Life Sciences, and the Keystone Symposium’s Scientific Advisory Board has also provided me with unique exposure to research and education policy on the national level. With this background, I believe I could provide University of Oregon with strong leadership as it seeks to address opportunities and challenges that lay ahead: …

David Conover (Stony Brook University). Public presentation in Room 202 Alumni Center, 3:30-5:00 Thursday 2/25.

• David Conover CV
• David Conover Letter
• Interview Schedule

… During my term as VPR, I have helped Stony Brook advance on numerous fronts. These include the winning of the re-competition to continue to co-manage (with Battelle) the operations of BNL via contract with the Department of Energy (DOE), the winning of a new $10 million Energy Frontiers Research Center grant from DOE, and an overall 5.5% increase in research expenditures in FY14-15. I launched a new Office of Proposal Development to assist faculty with large interdisciplinary proposals and we have already seen a 22% increase in proposals submitted. We also launched the Discovery Fund, a new means to attract philanthropic support for basic research. Finally, one of the ways I engage with the arts and humanities disciplines is by enlisting their expertise in training scientists to communicate with a general audience. In that regard, I helped found the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook and I continue to serve on its Executive Committee. Strategic planning is a prime component of my administrative approach. The Decadal Survey of Ocean Sciences, mentioned earlier, is a prime example. Decadal surveys have been used successfully by many other disciplines as a means to engage the science community nation-wide in long range strategic planning but it had never been done for ocean sciences. In the tight budget environment we are now experiencing, it is more important than ever that a science community speaks with one voice about priorities and vision. The same is true of university communities where a unified voice is often the most effective means of identifying priorities, advocating for resources, and implementing change. …

Patricia Bauer (Emory). Public presentation in Room 202 Alumni Center, 3:30-5:00 Tuesday March 1.

• Patricia Bauer CV
• Patricia Bauer Letter
• Interview Schedule

… My background and expertise make me especially well qualified for the post of Vice President for Research and Innovation. From July 2007 through August 2015, I served as Senior Associate Dean for Research in Emory College of Arts and Sciences, Emory University (Atlanta, GA). The mission of my office was to increase the profile of research and scholarship of the faculty, students, and staff of Emory College of Arts and Sciences. In pursuit of this goal, my office facilitated development and submission of proposals to external sponsors for support of research and scholarship, training, and infrastructure. I also worked in collaboration with the Office of Foundation Relations to assist faculty in identification of and submission to non-federal sources of support for research-related efforts. I also supported faculty in their interactions with university offices of research administration, such as the Office of Sponsored Programs, Office of Grants and Contracts, and the Institutional Review Board and Division of Animal Resources, and worked to promote compliance with all policies, regulations, and procedures related to research and external funding. I also worked with the Office of Technology Transfer to promote development of intellectual property. Prior to my move to Emory University in 2007, I served as Co-Chair of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University, and as Associate Director of the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota. …

Candidate D: March 3-4, 2016

INFORMATION & RESOURCES

• Position Announcement
• Search Position Profile
• About the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation
• Research at the University of Oregon
• About the University of Oregon

SEARCH COMMITTEE

SEARCH FIRM

Witt/Kiefer

Meanwhile, here’s the news from down in Tucson:

The University of Arizona has slashed its growth targets in a key area for a research institution: research. The Tucson school, historically the state’s top spender on university research, is expected to cede that position to Arizona State University within five years, a new forecast from the Arizona Board of Regents shows. The UA’s total research spending, previously expected to reach $1.2 billion by 2020, is now predicted to be roughly half that — $654 million — by the turn of the decade, the forecast shows. The slowdown dims what was thought to be a future bright spot for Tucson’s economy and the state as a whole. Growth in university research spending “provides major returns to the state,” the regents’ website notes. “Dollars spent on research and development activity are used to purchase local goods and services,” and help create new companies and jobs, the site also says. The new predictions upend earlier forecasts of strong growth in UA research spending — the total the school can raise each year from government grants and other sources to fund its research activities. Kimberly Espy, the UA’s senior vice president for research, said the school’s old growth projections were crafted around 2008, before the economic downturn hit and before the federal government started cutting back on research grants to universities.