Associate vice chancellor accepts visiting assignment with the National Science Foundation
LAWRENCE — Joshua Rosenbloom, professor of economics at the University of Kansas and associate vice chancellor for research and graduate studies, is en route to Washington, D.C., this summer in a new role. In August, he begins a visiting stint as a program director with the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences at the National Science Foundation (NSF). He expects to be in Washington for the next two years.
Rosenbloom, who came to KU in 1988, will work with the Science of Science and Innovation Policy Program. He will assist with the creation, management and decision-making process of the peer review panels that examine and score grant proposals in this field. He also plans to continue his own research, exploring the partnership between universities and federal agencies in supporting the nation's innovation economy.
Other KU faculty have received similar NSF appointments in recent years, including Joane Nagel, sociology, and Prasad Gogineni and Joseph Evans, electrical engineering and computer science. Erik Herron, political science, is currently in Washington as an NSF program director with the Political Science Program in the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences.
"This will give me an opportunity to see the grant-making process from the NSF perspective," said Rosenbloom, who has participated in four NSF-funded research projects at KU since 1998. "It also gives NSF a better understanding of what's happening at the campus level across the country. The experience will be good for me, helpful to NSF, and useful to KU after I return."
During his absence, Rosenbloom retains his KU faculty rank, as well as his status as a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research. An internal search for his successor as associate vice chancellor is under way.
"Joshua has done a terrific job during his six years in this senior-level position," said Steve Warren, vice chancellor for research and graduate studies. "His impact has been both broad and deep. I especially appreciated his recent six-month service as interim dean of graduate studies. We will miss him here, but the NSF assignment will benefit him a great deal professionally."
Rosenbloom's academic background includes a Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin College and a doctorate from Stanford University. He is the author of "Looking for Work, Searching for Workers: Labor Markets during American Industrialization" and editor of "Quantitative Economic History: The Good of Counting"and "Economic Evolution and Revolution in Historical Time."