STARKVILLE — A veteran Mississippi State University faculty member and research scientist is being named vice president for research and economic development at the land-grant institution.
David R. Shaw, who holds the university”s highest honorary distinction as a William L. Giles Distinguished Professor, assumes his new duties Jan. 1, 2010, pending formal approval by the Board of Trustees, State Institutions of Higher Learning. He succeeds Kirk Schulz, who now is president of Kansas State University.
“Dr. Shaw emerged from a strong pool of outstanding candidates from around the country as the person best suited to help MSU continue its rise in prominence among the nation”s research universities,” said President Dr. Mark Keenum. “He has an outstanding record as a teacher, researcher and administrator.”
Beginning his career at MSU in 1985 as assistant professor of weed science, Shaw has played a key role in the creation and leadership of several cross-disciplinary research centers focusing on applications of remote sensing technology to resource management.
In 1998, he chaired an effort that led to the successful funding of the Remote Sensing Technologies Center with a NASA challenge grant, successfully developing a geospatial technologies certificate program at MSU.
In 2002, Shaw led efforts to merge the RSTC with three other centers that became the GeoResources Institute, now called the Geosystems Research Institute..
Most recently, Shaw successfully spearheaded a 2006 effort to form the NOAA-funded Northern Gulf Institute, an MSU-led collaboration with Louisiana State and Florida State universities, University of Southern Mississippi, and the Dauphin Island Sea Laboratory in Alabama.
Shaw is a fellow of the Weed Science Society and, in 2008, was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
He holds a bachelor”s degree in agriculture from Cameron University in Oklahoma and a master”s and doctorate from Oklahoma State University, both in weed science.
For the most recent year reported, Mississippi State ranks 34th among all engineering colleges nationally in research and development expenditures and fifth in agricultural sciences research. The university”s entire research program stands at 58th among all public institutions of higher learning, with research expenditures totaling $206.2 million.
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