Search opens for vice chancellor for research and grad education

The search is officially on for UW–Madison’s first vice chancellor for research and graduate education.

An 18-member committee, chaired by animal science Professor Mark Cook, is inviting applications and nominations for the position created last year after implementation of a new leadership structure for the UW–Madison research and graduate education enterprises.

“We believe that UW–Madison will be very attractive for extremely talented research leadership,” says Cook, citing the large, comprehensive nature of UW–Madison’s research program and built-in advantages, such as the annual gift from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF).

Cook notes that the committee will benefit from the assistance of a national search firm.

“There are likely many excellent candidates nationally from other major research universities and national research laboratories and institutes, as well as excellent candidates from our campus,” says Cook.

The vice chancellor for research and graduate education is the university’s chief research officer and is responsible for overseeing and coordinating research and graduate education on campus. The position is now held on an interim basis by Marsha Mailick, former director of the Waisman Center.

Because the position is new, Cook adds, the search and screen committee intends to hold benchmark sessions to gain a better understanding of how comparable universities assess expectations of their chief research officers.

With more than $1 billion annually in research expenditures across a wide array of disciplines, UW–Madison consistently ranks as one of the most prolific research universities worldwide. The vice chancellor for research and graduate education has overarching responsibility for the research environment and administers 17 cross-campus research and service centers, and maintains oversight of the Graduate School, which itself has a budget of $160 million and is responsible for graduate education for 9,400 students in 150 master’s and 120 doctoral fields.

Finalists will be interviewed by the committee as well as by the chancellor and other senior leaders of the UW–Madison campus. According to Cook, the committee anticipates that a short list will be provided to Chancellor Rebecca Blank by early March and that interviews will be completed sometime in April.

Other members of the search committee include biochemistry Professor Richard Amasino, psychiatry researcher Jeff Armstrong, budget and policy analyst Ann Bourque, student representative Alexandra Chesney, kinesiology Professor Dorothy Farrar-Edwards, oncology Professor Michael Gould, English Professor Sara Guyer, physics Professor Francis Halzen, Aquatic Sciences Communications Manager Moira Harrington, La Follette School of Public Affairs Professor Pamela Herd, pharmacy Professor Lingjun Li, radiology Professor Charles Mistretta, School of Medicine and Public Health Associate Dean Richard Moss, Senior Animal Research Technician David Pan, surgery Professor Carla Pugh, College of Engineering Dean Ian Robertson, and student representative Madhumanti Sardar.