Message from Interim VPR Milan Mrksich
I am delighted to begin my term as Interim Vice President for Research, and I look forward to working with all my colleagues to ensure Northwestern's place as a leading research institution and to increase both the scale and impact of our research portfolio.
Without question, the University's research enterprise is stronger than ever, and the staff’s contributions have been a vital part of our success. As I begin my new role, I plan to work with Office leadership and our administrators to make Northwestern a special environment for our faculty and students, and to maintain our leadership in an always-changing world.
Since 2011, I have been a Northwestern faculty member in the Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, and Cell & Developmental Biology Departments, and I have maintained laboratories on both the Evanston and Chicago campuses. In these roles, I have become familiar with the Office and its many important functions. I have spent the last two weeks meeting with Research leadership to gain an understanding of the different units within the Office, and I look forward to continuing these discussions and visits.
I also want to acknowledge my predecessor, Jay Walsh, for his long tenure in leading the Office and the extraordinary sustained growth of our research ecosystem over the past decade.
Looking ahead, I am excited to work with Office leadership to address new challenges in research administration, including the ever-increasing competition for research funding, a more complex regulatory environment, and greater interest by our faculty in translating their research for societal benefit, among other areas. I will devote much of the next several weeks to meeting many new people, learning more about important administrative work, and hearing suggestions for how the Office for Research can even better support research at Northwestern.
Milan Mrksich
Interim Vice President for Research
Henry Wade Rogers Professor
Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, and Cell & Developmental Biology