Melur Ramasubramanian, Ph.D

Melur K. “Ram” Ramasubramanian has been appointed the University of Virginia’s vice president for research, UVA President Teresa A. Sullivan announced today.

Ramasubramanian will assume this position on Aug. 8 and will report to the president. He is currently program director for the Engineering Research Centers program at the National Science Foundation and D.W. Reynolds Distinguished Professor and department chair of Mechanical Engineering at Clemson University, with a joint faculty appointment as professor of bioengineering.

Ramasubramanian will succeed interim vice president for research Philip A. Parrish, who will return to his previous role of associate vice president for research.

“Ram has accumulated a powerful combination of experiences as a world-class researcher, teacher and administrator,” Sullivan said. “He has served as a research university department chair and program director for one of the largest single center-level research funding mechanisms at the National Science Foundation. This experience will prove extremely valuable as Ram creates the collaborative and multi-disciplinary framework to further advance UVA’s research productivity.”

Ramasubramanian’s charge is to shape and direct UVA’s collaborative research and scholarship portfolio with the goal of pinpointing optimal investment opportunities within and among UVA’s 11 schools to advance the University’s research infrastructure and support services.