Old Dominion Vice President of Research to lead academic and student affairs
UMass Dartmouth Chancellor Divina Grossman today announced the appointment of Dr. Mohammad A. Karim, vice president for research at Old Dominion University in Virginia, as Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs.
"We are pleased to welcome an academic leader of Dr. Karim's stature to UMass Dartmouth,'' Chancellor Grossman said. "As we aspire to develop the transformative teaching, research, and engagement activity of our university at a time of rapid change, Dr. Karim's passion for learning and discovery, his administrative experience, and his innovative spirit are sure to be valuable assets in positioning our students and faculty and excel."
"I want to thank Dr. Alex Fowler, who stepped up to the plate when called upon to serve as interim provost, and has played a critical leadership role as the university confronts the challenges of an evolving higher education environment,'' Chancellor Grossman said. "Alex has demonstrated a willingness to make tough, transparent, and merit-based decisions that always have the best interests of our learners, teachers, and researchers at heart."
Dr. Karim's appointment follows a national search and screening process conducted by a 20-member committee of UMass Dartmouth faculty and staff and co-chaired by UMass Lowell Provost Ahmed Abdelal and UMass Dartmouth Professor Sigal Gottlieb, who is director of the Center for Scientific Computing and Visualization Research.
In a joint statement, Search Committee Chairs Abdelal and Gottlieb, said, "We had the pleasure of serving with a team of committee members who were willing to devote long hours screening and interviewing many stellar candidates to assure that Chancellor Grossman would have several outstanding options. We thank our fellow committee members for their service, commend Chancellor Grossman for her selection, and welcome Dr. Karim to the UMass Dartmouth family. We believe that his outstanding credentials and experience will serve UMass Dartmouth well."
As Old Dominion's first Vice President for Research, Dr. Karim led efforts to grow the university's research enterprise from $34.8 million to $104.6 million, improving ODU's research rankings across a variety of fields, including oceanography, business, engineering, education and the arts. He oversees a 1,302-person team that includes 216 faculty researchers, 262 non-faculty professionals, 286 graduate research assistants, and 603 others.
Among his other accomplishments at ODU includes facilitating:
-- Development of the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium - a partnership with the University of Virginia, Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, Virginia Tech, James Madison University, Norfolk State University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Hampton University, and several state agencies.
-- Securing of federal/state appropriations of more than $60 million for programs in energy, modeling, simulation and visualization, bioelectrics, transportation, oceans studies, robotics and vision.
-- Development of a research park in Norfolk that resulted in co-location of ten research units and several non-ODU partners.
-- Establishment of a $13 million, 60,000 sq. ft. research facility to house the Virginia
Modeling Analysis and Simulation Center and eight start-up companies
A professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dr. Karim has developed a national and international reputation in his field. He is author of 19 books, over 365 research papers, and 8 book chapters and has served as guest editor of 33 journal special issues.
The list of his research sponsors includes the Office of Naval Research, National Science Foundation, US Air Force, Naval Research Laboratory, US Army, NASA, US Department of Education, Ohio Aerospace Institute, US Department of Defense, and Avionics Laboratory of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He has served as a research mentor of over 60 MS/PhD students during his career.
Dr. Karim is Editor of Optics and Laser Technology, an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Education, and a member of the Editorial Boards of Microwave and Optical Technology Letters and World Journal of Modeling and Simulation. Since 2002, Dr. Karim has been chairing the program committee of the International Conference on Computers and Information Technology (ICCIT).
Dr. Karim is an elected fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA), the Society of Photo-Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Institute of Physics (InstP), the Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET), and the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences.
Prior to joining ODU in July 2004, Dr. Karim served as Dean of Engineering at the City College of New York of the City University of New York. He received his BS Honors degree in physics from the University of Dacca, Bangladesh, in 1976, and MS in physics, MS in electrical engineering, and Ph.D. in electrical engineering degrees from the University of Alabama respectively in 1978, 1979, and 1981.