LSU narrows search for vice chancellor

The committee searching for LSU’s next vice chancellor for research and economic development has invited five candidates to be interviewed for the job. As part of the process, each candidate will speak at a public forum on campus beginning next week, and have a formal interview. Boyd Professor Thomas Klei currently holds the position on an interim basis. The new hire will replace Brooks Keel, who left in 2009 to become president at Georgia Southern University. The candidates are: K.T. Valsaraj, associate vice chancellor for research and economic development at LSU; Jerry Miller, assistant director for ocean sciences at the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy; Kevin Smith, distinguished professor of chemistry at LSU; David Conover, director for the Division of Ocean Sciences at the National Science Foundation; and Chitra Rajan, associate vice president for research at Iowa State University. You can see the complete forum and interview schedule, as well as read more about the search in general and each of the five candidates announced today, here.