The Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships is proud to announce the appointment of Randy Hewes as Senior Associate Vice President for Research and Partnerships, effective October 1, 2019, pending Board of Regents’ approval. This role will be split with his position as Dean of the Graduate College, ensuring continued close coordination of research and graduate education initiatives.
Randy joined the OU biology faculty in 2001, and his research has focused on the genetic and molecular pathways controlling neuronal remodeling, supported by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Education, and the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology. Since joining the faculty, he has served in several administrative leadership roles, including Chair of the Department of Biology and Chair of the Faculty Senate. In 2007, he was recognized as the Kinney-Sugg Outstanding Professor in the OU College of Arts and Sciences.
Randy brings invaluable experience to this new role, having served as Interim Vice President for Research this past year. During that time, he completed a zero-based reset of the entire Office of Research budget and managed substantial staff reorganizations that included changes to grants administration and administrative oversight of institutional review boards. He played a central role in developing a successful $8.3 million FY20 research funding request to the Governor and State Legislature, and he supported strategic planning for several other campus-wide research initiatives, including the recently dedicated Center for Quantum Research and Technology. Under his tenure as Interim VPR, new grants and contracts for FY19 were $162 million for the Norman Campus – $26 million above the previous record.
Randy earned a B.A. with honors from Carleton College and a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Washington in Seattle. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and later served there as a research associate in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology. He was also an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow.
As a University, we have made immense strides in building research momentum, and we are pleased to continue to benefit from Randy’s expertise.