USF Interim VP of Research and Innovation

[Drewski]

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/othercities/columbus/stories/2007/10/15/daily33.html?b=1192420800%5E1538502

Former Ohio State University President Karen Holbrook is taking an interim executive job at the University of South Florida.

President Judy Genshaft wrote a letter to faculty and staff at the Tampa university Thursday saying Holbrook accepted an offer to serve as interim vice president of research and innovation.

Holbrook was Ohio State's president from 2002 until the end of the 2006-07 academic year and was the first woman to hold the school's top job. E. Gordon Gee, who was president of the university during much of the 1990s, returned this year from Vanderbilt University to succeed Holbrook.

Genshaft told faculty the search for the permanent vice president of research and innovation would be postponed because Holbrook had requested to meet with members of the search committee.

Holbrook is scheduled to begin her job Dec. 3.

In the position, Holbrook will lead research efforts for the university, like she did from 1993 to 1998 as vice president of research at the University of Florida.

South Florida took in more than $70 million in federal research and development funding in fiscal 2005, the latest year for which National Science Foundation statistics are available. By comparison, Ohio State University received more than $200 million in federal research and development funding that year.

The University of South Florida has more than 44,000 students on four campuses.