The Board of Trustees selected Parag Chitnis as the new Vice President of Research and Development on March 25.
UW Provost and Executive Vice President Kevin Carman, who led the search committee, shared his thoughts in a UW press release.
“Doctor Chitnis has extensive expertise in areas that are central to UW’s land-grant mission,” Carman said.
“He has had great success as both a scholar and administrator and we’re looking forward to drawing upon his experiences to advance the university’s important research enterprise and reach UW’s potential as an economic driver for the state.”
Chitnis, in his new appointment, will be responsible for supporting and facilitating the research efforts of faculty and students, as well as assisting the university in its research mission.
In addition to his responsibilities as Vice President, Chitnis will also serve as a professor within the Department of Molecular Biology.
“I am honored to join UW’s dynamic leadership team for advancing President Seidel’s transformative vision for digital, entrepreneurial, inclusive and interdisciplinary excellence at UW,” Chitnis said.
President Seidel shared his sentiments on the selection.
“Doctor Chitnis brings a deep understanding of both the federal research funding landscape and the mission of land-grant universities to UW,” President Ed Seidel said.
“We’re excited he’s joining our leadership team to help move the university forward and achieve our ambitions in the highly related areas of research and economic development.”
According to the Research & Economic Development website, the office works to link research efforts across campus, in addition to “enhancing federal, state, and private sector support for faculty and graduate scholarship.”
Recently, the university has taken actions to attempt to return to R-1 status, including several new initiatives and new appointments from both the President and the Board of Trustees, such as the Science Initiative Building.
Before coming to UW, Chitnis served as the Associate Director for programs at the Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), where he managed more than 70 NIFA programs with a budget of nearly $2 billion.
Chitnis has also previously worked with the National Science Foundation (NSF) as Director of the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, where he led research grant programs and initiatives in areas including synthetic biology and functional genomics.
Chitnis also worked with Iowa State University as a full and associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Molecular Biology.
