Gordon creates new position: associate provost for research

A new position, associate provost for research, has been created in the Office of the Provost at Wake Forest University.

Provost William C. Gordon has appointed Wake Forest Professor of Chemistry Mark E. Welker to serve in the new, half-time position in an interim capacity. Welker will remain in his faculty position while serving as interim associate provost for research.

Later this year, the university will conduct an on-campus search to fill the position on a permanent basis.

The associate provost for research “will be dedicated to the support of research, scholarship and creative work on the Reynolda Campus,” Gordon announced.

In a memorandum to faculty, Gordon explained the position will be responsible for such activities as:

• assessing and improving the university’s research infrastructure
• aiding in the development of external funding opportunities that would support research, scholarship and creative work on the campus
• developing mechanisms that would encourage greater student involvement in research, scholarship and creative activities
• facilitating scholarly collaborations across departmental and school boundaries
• facilitating the publication or exhibition of faculty and student work
• serving as campus-wide advocate for the teacher-scholar model

Gordon said he created the new position after receiving a proposal from Wake Forest’s Research Advisory Council and suggestions from a number of professors.

“Mark Welker has had an outstanding career at Wake Forest as both a teacher and a scholar,” Gordon said.

Welker, who joined the Wake Forest faculty in 1987, has chaired the council and worked as a program officer at the National Science Foundation. Last year, North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley appointed Welker to the North Carolina Board of Science and Technology.

Since joining the faculty, Welker has been named a Wake Forest Professor, an endowed professorship.

He received a bachelor of science degree in chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a doctorate in organic chemistry at Florida State University. He was a post-doctoral fellow in organic chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley.