Sui switches Arkansas for Virginia Tech

Daniel Sui (pictured left) has taken a new role with Virginia Tech as vice-president for research and innovation and will resign as University of Arkansas’s vice-chancellor with the same remit on November 1.
He will be replaced at Arkansas by John English (pictured right), who has been dean of the institution’s College of Engineering since 2013. An interim appointment is expected for English’s current role.
Sui joined the university in late 2018 and also conducts research as a distinguished professor of geography, an appointment set to continue after he has left Arkansas’s Office of Research and Innovation.
Sui is credited for spearheading faculty research and integrating innovation with academic programs to the effect that research expenditures hit a new high of around $180m in 2019.
He also helped draft a new $195m innovation and research facility – the Institute for Integrative and Innovative Research – to corral five clusters of commercialisation activity: data science, food technology, materials science, bioscience and bioengineering, and integrative systems neuroscience.
Before joining Arkansas, Sui was a professor of geography and distinguished professor of social and behavioural sciences at Ohio State University from 2009.
He received his PhD in geography and geographic information science from University of Georgia in 1993.
Joseph Steinmetz, chancellor of University of Arkansas, said: “We are grateful to Dan for his leadership in a time of transition for the Office of Research and Innovation.
“He has done a great job building the infrastructure to support faculty research and improving our systems for research awards and expenditures, ensuring we are in alignment with national best practices, helping to establish and position a distinct research office following its separation from economic development.”
– Image courtesy of University of Arkansas