Three vice chancellor for research finalists to visit campus this month

LAWRENCE — The search committee for the position of vice chancellor for research at the University of Kansas has chosen three finalists for the position.

Each of the three finalists will visit KU this month to give a public presentation and take questions from the KU community.

The first candidate to visit is Richard Hichwa, senior associate vice president for research and economic development at the University of Iowa, who will be on campus Dec. 10-12. Hichwa’s public presentation is scheduled from 4-5 p.m. Thursday at the Lied Center Pavilion.

The remaining two candidates’ names will be announced two days before they arrive on campus. The public forums for these two candidates are scheduled for:

• Tuesday, Dec. 16, 11 a.m.-noon at the Lied Center Pavilion
• Thursday, Dec. 18, 11 a.m.-noon at the Lied Center Pavilion

Each candidate will present on the topic of “Strategies for Raising Research Stature during an Era of Declining Funding.” All presentations will be recorded on video and posted online after the last presentation is complete.

Additional information and CVs of all three candidates will be available here.

The vice chancellor for research at KU oversees 10 research centers, two state surveys, two affiliated centers and a number of core research laboratories. The position also serves as president of the KU Center for Research Inc. – the nonprofit research foundation responsible for the administration of research grants and other external awards – and shares overall responsibility for KU Innovation and Collaboration, KU’s bicampus technology commercialization office. Mary Lee Hummert has been serving as KU’s interim vice chancellor since March 2014.

Richard Hichwa biography

Richard Hichwa is currently the senior associate vice president for research and economic development at the University of Iowa as well as a professor in the departments of Radiology, Physics and Radiation Oncology.

He oversees the university’s Research Development Office, which promotes new research activities; engages and leads faculty teams for the development of large multidisciplinary program/center research grants; manages internal funding initiatives and awards; partners with the Office of the Provost to define, develop and initiate multidisciplinary cluster hires; and works with faculty and the University of Iowa Research Foundation to translate ideas and intellectual property into new startups and licensed technologies.

Previously, Hichwa held various leadership positions at Iowa, including associate vice president for research-development from 2008-10, associate vice president for research-compliance from 2006-08, vice chair for research in the radiology department in the University of Iowa College of Medicine from 2003-07 and director of the Positron Emission Tomography Imaging Center from 1988-2007. Prior to his tenure at Iowa, Hichwa was a faculty member of internal medicine and bioengineering at the University of Michigan.

Hichwa earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from Notre Dame. He studied nuclear physics at Vanderbilt University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and he earned his master’s degree and doctorate in medical physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.