Carol Kim, Ph.D., vice president for research and dean of the Graduate School for the University of Maine, will be the final of four candidates for the position of vice president of Research to present. Her public presentation is scheduled 9-10 a.m. Nov. 1 in Cudworth Auditorium.
A microbiologist by training, Kim also is founder and director of the university’s research facility for zebrafish, which she uses as a model organism to study the innate immune response to pathogens and the role of environmental toxicants in modulating resistance to them.
Kim, who joined the UMaine faculty in 1998 as assistant professor and was promoted to professor in 2010, also was director of the Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering before assuming her current roles and responsibilities.
Kim received a doctorate in microbiology from Cornell University in 1992 and conducted postdoctoral research in biochemistry at Molecular Probes Inc. and in microbiology at Oregon State University. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in biological chemistry and philosophy at Wellesley College.
UAB began a national search for a vice president for research this summer after Richard B. Marchase, Ph.D., vice president for Research and Economic Development, announced his intent to retire at the end of 2016. In 2015, UAB received more than $400 million in research grants and contracts and increased its research and development expenditures to $510 million from $430 million the previous year.
The vice president of Research will be responsible for broadening UAB’s research portfolio across the campus and driving strategic planning and research operations that nurture excellent research, scholarship and creative activity by faculty, staff and students. A full description of the position is on the executive search website, and the UAB community is encouraged to complete evaluations of all the vice president candidates online.
Presentations were made in October by three candidates:
- Colin S. Duckett, Ph.D., director of research for The University of Michigan School of Medicine North Research Complex
- Steven Leach, M.D., an attending physician and the director of pancreatic cancer research at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
- Christopher Brown, Ph.D., vice president for research for the University of North Carolina System and director of the NASA/ North Carolina Space Grant.
