Vol. 38, No. 18

4-20-2004
By:

New vice president will lead OSU research efforts

McGrath to expand interdisciplinary programs, seek more funding

A fusion energy scientist from Pennsylvania State University who has helped expand that institution’s growth in interdisciplinary research has been chosen to head the research enterprise at Ohio State.

President Karen Holbrook will recommend that Robert T. McGrath, currently the associate vice president for research and director of strategic and interdisciplinary initiatives at Penn State, be named Ohio State’s senior vice president for research at the Board of Trustees’ next meeting on May 7.

“Bob McGrath is a leader of proven ability with deep administrative experience, a solid record of scholarship and research funding, and a tremendous knowledge of federal agencies. Of critical importance to us as we move our research agenda forward is his expertise in building and fostering an exceptional and highly regarded interdisciplinary research program at Penn State,” Holbrook said.

A plasma physicist and engineer by training, McGrath joined Penn State in 1996 as a professor of engineering science and was selected in 1999 to serve as associate vice president for research.

McGrath’s current responsibilities include supporting Penn State’s strategic and interdisciplinary research programs, including the Materials Research Institute, the Institutes for the Environment, the Social Sciences Research Institute and the Huck Institute for the Life Sciences. McGrath also provides leadership for important Department of Defense research programs by serving as director of the Marine Corps Research University at Penn State and as coordinator for a multi-university consortium supporting the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. In addition, McGrath has provided administrative support for the Institute for Arts and Humanities and the Center for Medieval Studies, and has actively supported scholarship within those programs.

SEARCH EFFORT PRAISED

Fred Sanfilippo, senior vice president and executive dean for health sciences and dean of the College of Medicine and Public Health, led the search committee. “This was a great search process, where a large, diverse and highly engaged committee reviewed many candidates to get us to three outstanding finalists. Bob’s previous experience, both at Penn State and nationally, will be of great value in moving our research agenda forward. We are very fortunate to bring him to Ohio State.”

One of the finalists for the position was Tom Rosol, who has served as interim vice president for research since Brad Moore’s departure last spring. Holbrook praised Rosol’s leadership in continuing to move the university’s agenda forward while representing the priorities of researchers at the university level.

“We are so grateful that we had someone of Tom’s caliber already here, and I know that he will be a tremendous asset to the continued growth of our research program,” Holbrook said.

Research grants have increased 80 percent at Ohio State in the past five years, now reaching a level of $426 million annually, which ranks 13th in the nation among public universities and 19th among all universities in 2001, the last year for which figures are available. Ohio State ranks fifth in the nation in terms of industry-sponsored research and development expenditures. In addition, the university’s faculty are being internationally recognized. In 2003-04, 15 faculty were named American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellows, more than at any university in the country.

Before joining Penn State, McGrath worked for Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., from 1984 through 1998. While there, he served as a senior researcher, department manager and program manager. He held senior positions within Sandia’s tokamak fusion energy program and coordinated international collaborations for the Department of Energy (DOE) on plasma-materials in tokamaks with both the Japanese Atomic Energy Research Institute and the National Institute for Fusion Science, as well as with several physics laboratories in the European Union and the Russian Federation. He also served as visiting scientist at the Kernforschungsanlage’s Institute for Plasma Physics in Germany and at the Commissariat á L’Energie Atomique in the south of France.

Prior to 1984, McGrath held various research positions at Argonne National Laboratory, the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Battelle Pacific Northwest Labs, Exxon Research and TRW, Inc.

He has authored more than 50 journal publications and is a member of the American Physical Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the American Society for Engineering Education and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

McGrath received his bachelor of science degree in honors engineering science in 1972, his master of science in physics in 1974, and his master of arts in mathematics in 1975, all from Penn State, and his doctorate in nuclear science and engineering from the University of Michigan in 1980.
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