It is my pleasure to announce that I am appointing Dr. Pamir Alpay interim Vice President for Research, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship (VPRIE) at UConn. As you know, Pamir is currently the executive director of the UConn Innovation Partnership Building (IPB) and a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor.
He is well known throughout UConn for his tireless work in supporting faculty research, fostering industry partnerships, and setting an example of innovation with his own work in smart/functional materials and multi-scale materials modeling.
He will serve in the interim VPRIE role in my place as I serve as interim president, and we will work in tandem with others throughout UConn and UConn Health in the shared mission of securing our place as one of the nation’s top research universities.
In an institution that is fortunate to have so many talented faculty researchers, Pamir is particularly impressive and well suited to take on this important leadership role.
He came to UConn in 2001 from the University of Maryland, where he received his PhD in materials science and engineering in 1999 and worked as a postdoctoral researcher for the next two years, specializing in modeling of functional materials systems.
He joined the UConn School of Engineering as an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, moving to the rank of associate professor (with academic tenure) in 2007 and then to full professor in 2010. He also served as MSE’s department head from 2013-17.
Pamir distinguished himself quickly and consistently in those roles, earning a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award in 2001 and the School of Engineering’s Outstanding Junior Faculty Award in 2004.
He was named General Electric Endowed Professor in Advanced Manufacturing in 2017, and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, ASM International, and the American Ceramic Society.
He has authored more than 180 peer-reviewed journal publications and conference proceedings, four invited book chapters, and an invited book co-authored on compositionally graded ferroelectric materials.
He was selected in 2017 as executive director of the IPB at the UConn Tech Park and has done outstanding work managing that state-of-the-art facility and coordinating associated industry partnerships. He has also continued to innovate in his field, including as the lead researcher on an $8 million project with the Air Force aimed at improving aerospace manufacturing processes.
Pamir’s skills in leadership, creativity, and collaboration make him an ideal fit for the interim position leading UConn’s burgeoning research enterprise. Please join me in congratulating him on this role, and my thanks to all of you for your continued pursuit of excellence in everything do here at UConn.
Sincerely,
Dr. Radenka Maric
Interim President
