Miguel Garcia-Diaz, an accomplished administrator, researcher and educator with more than 15 years of higher education experience at Stony Brook University, has been named vice president for research, scholarship and innovation at the University of Delaware, President Dennis Assanis announced today. His appointment will be effective May 1.  

A member of Stony Brook’s faculty in pharmacological sciences since 2007, Garcia-Diaz has served as interim vice president for research, operations manager for the SUNY Research Foundation, associate dean of the Graduate School, and director of the doctoral program in molecular and cellular pharmacology. In addition, he has maintained an active research program on campus and in collaboration with Brookhaven National Laboratory. 

“Miguel Garcia-Diaz brings tremendous knowledge, talent and drive to his new role as leader of UD’s research enterprise,” said Assanis. “His collaborative leadership and demonstrated commitment to excellence and partnership-building will add great value to our community of researchers and scholars, accelerating the application of ingenuity to positive impact for Delaware and the world. We look forward to the exciting developments in research, scholarship and innovation that lie ahead.” 

Reporting directly to the University president, the vice president for research, scholarship and innovation is responsible for supporting and advancing UD’s research enterprise, which currently exceeds $237 million annually in externally funded projects. The vice president has direct oversight of several multidisciplinary initiatives and is responsible for University-wide research institutes and centers, as well as UD’s research core facilities. Garcia-Diaz will work to enhance the reputation and value of the University’s innovation portfolio, including patent licensing, technology transfer and entrepreneurship. He will also work closely with the president and other senior administrators in sustaining the growth of the Science, Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Campus, and collaborate with the provost to promote academic and research excellence. 

"I am thrilled to be joining the University of Delaware as vice president for research, scholarship and innovation,” Garcia-Diaz said. “This role presents an extraordinary opportunity to create meaningful impact while supporting the UD community’s culture of entrepreneurship and excellence in research and scholarship. I look forward to working together with President Assanis, his leadership team and UD’s faculty, staff and students to advance the University’s mission and sustain its impressive growth."

Garcia-Diaz succeeds Kelvin Lee, Gore Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, who has served as interim vice president since July 2022; Lee will return to his leadership role full-time at the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL), headquartered on UD’s Science, Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Campus.

Assanis added, “I also want to thank Kelvin Lee for his service as interim vice president. The University, and especially our research community, is grateful for his dedication and leadership of the research enterprise over the past several months.”

About Miguel Garcia-Diaz 

Most recently at Stony Brook, Garcia-Diaz served as interim vice president for research, providing oversight for research administration, strategy, policy, technology transfer and economic development. He also was the institution’s operations manager for the SUNY Research Foundation, a private nonprofit that brings together leadership across the SUNY campuses to cultivate innovation and entrepreneurship in priority areas, including artificial  intelligence, clean energy, biotechnology, longevity, addiction, environmental health and quantum computing. 

A structural biologist, Garcia-Diaz has focused his own research on understanding how mitochondria — the power plants in cells — build the different structures needed for cellular respiration and energy production, a process called mitochondrial biogenesis. The mitochondrial  genome has 37 genes, and genetic defects that impair mitochondrial biogenesis can affect the ability of cells to produce enough energy, causing a myriad of genetic diseases that can result in a variety of often severe health problems.  

Throughout his career, Garcia-Diaz has had a deep commitment to developing the next  generation of researchers. Previously, at Stony Brook, he served as director of the T32 Training Program in Pharmacological Sciences for predoctoral students. He also co-directed the Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award (IRACDA) Training Program, which seeks to develop a diverse group of highly trained scientists to address the nation’s biomedical, behavioral and clinical research needs. Both programs are supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  

Garcia-Diaz received his B.S. in biochemistry and Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from the Universidad Autónoma in Madrid, Spain. He also pursued postdoctoral research as a visiting fellow at NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.