FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: August 8, 2005
CONTACT: Sally Logue Post, sally.post@ttu.edu
LUBBOCK, TX – Dr. Dean O. Smith, a neuroscientist and former senior vice president
for research and dean of the Graduate Division at the University of Hawaii, has been
appointed vice president for research at Texas Tech University, President Jon Whitmore
announced today.
Smith, who also has served as associate dean of the Graduate School at the University
of Wisconsin – Madison, will lead efforts to expand Texas Tech’s research enterprise
and the commercialization of research discoveries. He will assume his new duties
Sept. 1.
“Dean Smith brings to the table a dynamic research background, an entrepreneurial
approach and a powerful intellect,” Whitmore said. “He has an impressive record of
securing research funding and of establishing results-oriented research teams. I
consider him to be supremely qualified to lead Texas Tech’s research efforts into
the future.”
As vice president of research, Smith takes on a program of initiatives supported by
a combined total of $45.8 million in external funding. Whitmore said Smith will be
charged with expanding Texas Tech’s research capacity through the pursuit of federal,
state, and corporate funding. In addition, he will coordinate interdisciplinary research
with the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.
Smith is an honor graduate with a degree in biology from Harvard. He earned master’s
and doctoral degrees in biological sciences from Stanford University. He served as
senior vice president and executive vice chancellor at the University of Hawaii from
1997 to 2001. Since 2001, he has been a professor in the School of Ocean and Earth
Science and Technology at the University of Hawaii.
In that role, he has been the principal investigator for two National Institutes of
Health grants totaling $18.5 million for research into the cellular basis of immunological
and neurological disease. In addition, he is Hawaii’s principal investigator in a
six-state $10 million NIH grant that is studying networking technologies and applications.
While an administrator at the University of Hawaii, the institution’s Manoa campus
jumped from 68th to 54th nationally in federal research funding. In addition, the
university rose from third-tier to the top 25 among national research universities
in U.S. News and World Report rankings.
Smith replaces Dr. Robert M. Sweazy, who is stepping down after serving as Vice President
for Research since 2001. Dr. Sweazy has served as a faculty member and administrator
at Texas Tech since 1970.