Vice Chancellor Atkinson Selected to Lead Research at UC Davis

Barbara A. Bichelmeyer, Provost & Executive Vice Chancellor
Friday, Oct. 13, 2023, 11:01 a.m.
KU Lawrence Faculty, Staff and Affiliates

Dear Colleague,

I write with bittersweet news of a change in campus leadership. Simon Atkinson, Vice Chancellor for Research at KU Lawrence and Edwards, has been selected to be the next Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of California, Davis.

We wish him all the best as he prepares for this next phase in his career. His last day with us will be Nov. 14.

Simon has championed numerous research successes at KU since arriving in 2019, and I am deeply grateful for his insight and leadership. A short list of his numerous accomplishments while here includes:

  • Developing and launching Research Rising, a KU Endowment-funded grant program that awarded research teams millions in seed funding for high-potential projects.
  • Making diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging a factor in the way we approach all aspects of research operations, including the creation of the Racial Equity Research, Scholarship & Creative Activity Awards.
  • Reorganizing post-award support and creating the Award Management Services unit.
  • Safely shuttering research activities at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and then safely re-awakening activity in the summer of 2020.
  • Shepherding a healthy trajectory for external research awards over the last two years.

Next Steps

Leadership of our research enterprise is crucial to our institutional growth, as well as our progress toward the vision of being an exceptional learning community that lifts each member and advances society. We will bridge our activities with an interim leader until we complete a nationwide search for our next Vice Chancellor for Research. If you know of someone at KU who should be considered for this interim leadership role, please send an email to provost@ku.edu by Oct. 20. Self-nominations will also be considered, and all submissions will be kept confidential. Nominees should hold the rank of full professor or higher and have experience with research administration, fiscal affairs, facilities utilization, personnel management, federal and state relations and fundraising.

Please join me in thanking Simon for all his insight, dedication, care and leadership, and in wishing him well as he continues to advance innovative scholarly work.

Respectfully,

Barb

Barbara A. Bichelmeyer

Provost & Executive Vice Chancellor