Dr. Arthur Ellis named Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies at UCOP
August 15, 2016 •
Dr. Arthur Ellis has joined UCOP as Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies (RGS), effective Aug. 10. He will report to Provost and EVP for Academic Affairs Aimée Dorr.
“Dr. Ellis is exceptionally well qualified for the position, having succeeded in a range of positions in academic administration at a range of institutions and exercised throughout a collaborative approach,” said Dorr when making the announcement. “His knowledge of research operations and graduate education at elite public research universities, his success as a ladder-rank faculty member for nearly 30 years, and his professional accomplishments will help strengthen the university’s research and graduate education missions. [He is] an ideal addition to Academic Affairs.”
RGS has an extensive portfolio of work that touches many areas throughout the university. It provides funds for systemwide UC research programs, grant and financial administration for certain state-funded research programs, systemwide competitions for special research areas, and oversight for a wide range of UC research. RGS supports convening of the Vice Chancellors for Research and of the Graduate Deans to further the mission of educating graduate students and works with them to meet the master plan for research and doctoral education. It creates, revises, and interprets application of internal and external research policy, many affecting graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. RGS manages the UC Laboratory Fee Research Program and helps develop collaborations between UC campuses and the UC-managed national laboratories. It supports a variety of systemwide resources including observatories, the 39-site Natural Reserve System and advanced computing facilities.
Ellis is returning to UC after serving as provost at City University of Hong Kong from 2010 to 2016. In that position, he led the university’s effort to build a curriculum around the goal of giving all students the opportunity to make original discoveries in their fields of study.
From 2006 to 2010, he was vice chancellor for research at UC San Diego where he and his colleagues established a new research office to enhance the campus’s infrastructure for research, promote interdisciplinary scholarship and create global research partnerships. He also helped launch campus-wide initiatives in sustainability, stem cell research and research cyber-infrastructure.
Ellis was director of the Division of Chemistry at the National Science Foundation (NSF) from 2002 to 2006. While at NSF, he and his colleagues developed programs to enable the national chemistry community to better integrate education and research, pursue large-scale research projects, enhance diversity, and advance bilateral international collaborations.
After receiving his PhD and BS degrees in chemistry from MIT and Caltech, respectively, Ellis began his independent scholarly career at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He advanced through the ranks to become Meloche-Bascom Professor of Chemistry at UW-Madison and, with his co-workers, published approximately 200 research papers in leading scientific journals and obtained nine patents. Ellis has received one of the inaugural NSF Director’s Distinguished Teaching Scholar Awards, an NSF Director’s Meritorious Service Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
