Job Description

Director - Huck Institutes of The Life Sciences

The Huck Institutes of The Life Sciences (Huck) is one of Penn State's largest institutes, with a goal of advancing interdisciplinary excellence, facilitating a university-wide culture of collaborative research, and supporting exceptional graduate education in the life sciences. The new Director will build on this legacy of excellence and guide Penn State life sciences research to the next level by working with Deans and Directors to help achieve the University's strategic research priorities.

With an annual expenditure of over $20M and support from a large endowment, the Huck's mission is to cultivate excellence in interdisciplinary life sciences at Penn State. The Huck is comprised of four Institutes, including Genomics, Plant Sciences, Ecology, Neurosciences, and 28 Centers of excellence, and engages faculty across each of Penn State's colleges, including the College of Medicine in Hershey, PA. The Institutes and Centers catalyze research and graduate training across life science disciplines and are dedicated to solving society's greatest challenges by building alliances across disciplinary boundaries, enhancing Penn State's ability to prepare students for the challenges of the future, and developing innovative approaches to move discovery to impact through active research commercialization. The Huck has a portfolio of 111 co-funded faculty and oversees six intercollege graduate degree programs comprised of approximately 275 graduate students, and a professional master's program in Biotechnology. The Huck supports research through eleven (11) state-of-the-art shared technology facilities including genomics, automated calorimetry, high field magnetic resonance imaging, metabolomics, proteomics and mass spectrometry, microscopy, flow cytometry, cell culture, fermentation, x-ray crystallography, and cryo-electron microscopy. With a dedicated staff of over 50 support professionals, the Huck manages over 80,000 sq ft of state-of-the-art laboratory space in 6 buildings including space in the award-winning Millennium Science Complex that brings together researchers in the life, biomedical, and material sciences.

The Huck is built by a team of inspired individuals with unique perspectives, an array of skills, and an engaging environment with opportunities for growth. The Director is supported by a Huck Executive Team (one full-time Associate Director, a Managing Director, and several part-time Associate Directors) who meet weekly to develop strategies for implementing Huck's vision and to steer the day-to-day operations.

The Director of the Huck reports directly to the Senior Vice President for Research, who oversees research activity exceeding $1.239 billion annually.

Responsibilities: The responsibilities of the Director include the following:

• Providing vision, university-wide leadership, and advances excellence in research and graduate training at the interface between life science and a myriad of other disciplines
• Building bridges and collaborations among the core colleges and developing policies and incentives for faculty participation in innovative, high-impact interdisciplinary research, to create an atmosphere of inclusion of diverse expertise and perspectives
• Chairing the Huck Kitchen Cabinet that advises the Director on all activities, policies and programs for the Huck Institutes
• Chairing the Deans Advisory Committee, which gives advice to the Huck Director on strategic, operational, financial, and research team building
• Identifying new funding opportunities and coordinating interdisciplinary research programs
• Enhancing graduate education in the life sciences, including support through fellowships, assistantships, joint recruiting, professional development and mentoring
• Identifying the means to facilitate research through seminars, workshops, and symposia
• Serving as liaison between the University's life sciences programs and state, national, and international life sciences organizations

Job Tags

Full time, Part time,

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