Northern Illinois University’s vice-president of research and innovation partnerships Gerald Blazey has announced his retirement at the end of this academic year.
Gerald Blazey, vice-president of research and innovation partnerships at Northern Illinois University (NIU), is set to retire on June 30, 2023, the end of the academic year.
Blazey took on his current position in 2015. He previously served as a senior policy advisor at the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the executive office of US president Barack Obama from 2011 to 2014.
He is a physicist specialised in high energy particle physics, having first come to NIU in 1996 from the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.
He helped establish and served as co-director of the Northern Illinois Center for Accelerator and Detector Development, and among his recent achievements at NIU is the development of the planned $23m Northern Illinois Center for Community Sustainability.
Lisa Freeman, president of NIU, announced a national search for Blazey’s replacement guided by a committee to be headed by Bob Brinkmann, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Freeman said: “Dr Blazey has been a key member of our NIU community more than 25 years, and we are grateful for his comradery, his outstanding work and his leadership in the physics department, in Washington, DC, and in our Division of Research and Innovation Partnerships.”
Thierry Heles
Thierry Heles is editor-at-large of Global University Venturing and Global Corporate Venturing, and host of the Beyond the Breakthrough podcast.
