Top NSF Official to Serve as Research Foundation President & SUNY Vice Chancellor for Research

SUNY Board of Trustees, Research Foundation Board Appoint Dr. Timothy Killeen to Dual Posts

Albany – The State University of New York Board of Trustees today appointed Timothy Killeen, Ph.D. as SUNY Vice Chancellor for Research, as previously recommended by SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher.

Additionally, the Research Foundation Board of Directors on May 31 approved Dr. Killeen’s appointment as President of the RF. His appointments to both posts are effective July 9, 2012.

About Timothy Killeen
Download Photo (Credit, National Center for Atmospheric Research)

Timothy Killeen has been the National Science Foundation’s Assistant Director for Geosciences since 2008. As head of one of the scientific directorates of the NSF, he manages a funding portfolio of roughly $880 million, up from $750 million when he started. Killeen also is Lyall Research Professor at the University of Colorado and, in 2007, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. From 2000-2008, Killeen served as director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), one of the premier atmospheric and climate-change research centers in the world and one of most-cited research centers in its fields.

He spent more than 20 years on the faculty and in the administration at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, including a term as Associate Vice President for Research. He has been the principal investigator on numerous theoretical and experimental investigations relating to atmospheric and space science, computing and information technology, and educational innovation, and has authored more than 150 publications in referred journals and 300 other publications, papers and conference proceedings.  

Killeen has led major strategic planning processes, including the development of the 10-year strategic plan for the $2.6 billion annual, 13- agency US Global Change Research Program, and has established several significant new programs including the Science, Engineering & Education for Sustainability (SEES) initiative. He has been active in promoting NSF’s  international programs, co-founding the Belmont Forum, which gathers representatives of leading government funding agencies worldwide (including NSF), to collaborate on global climate environmental change research. He has served on various White House Committees and Task Forces, testified frequently to Congress and the Executive branch, and is chair of IGFA, the 25 member International Group of Funding Agencies for global change research.

Killeen, a US citizen, grew up in Wales and completed his undergraduate and graduate education at University College London, earning his Ph.D. in Atomic and Molecular Physics at the age of 23.

About the Research Foundation for SUNY
The Research Foundation exists to serve SUNY and to capitalize on the scope, scale and diversity of SUNY as an engine of New York State’s innovation economy. The Research Foundation supports nearly $1 billion in SUNY research activity annually, providing sponsored programs administration and commercialization support services to SUNY faculty performing research in life sciences and medicine; engineering and nanotechnology; physical sciences and energy; social sciences, and computer and information sciences. For more information, visit www.rfsuny.org or follow the Research Foundation on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rfsuny.

About the State University of New York

The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive university system in the United States, educating nearly 468,000 students in more than 7,500 degree and certificate programs on 64 campuses with more than 3 million alumni around the globe. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunity, visit www.suny.edu.