{"id":12561,"date":"2020-03-02T19:43:51","date_gmt":"2020-03-02T19:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/?p=12561"},"modified":"2020-03-02T22:04:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-02T22:04:00","slug":"ackerman-to-lead-uw-madisons-research-and-graduate-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/articles\/12561","title":{"rendered":"Ackerman to lead UW\u2013Madison\u2019s research and graduate education"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CONTACT: Kelly Tyrrell, 608-262-9772, kelly.tyrrell@wisc.edu<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve Ackerman will serve as the University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison\u2019s next vice chancellor for research and graduate education, named today by Chancellor Rebecca Blank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am extremely happy,\u201d Ackerman says. \u201cServing as the vice chancellor for research and graduate education is a great opportunity to help support research across campus, nurture graduate students, and contribute to the pursuit of the Wisconsin Idea. One of our primary objectives is to build relationships with industry and the Wisconsin Idea is part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Steve Ackerman will serve as the University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison\u2019s next vice chancellor for research and graduate education. Credit: Jeff Miller \/ UW-Madison)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Ackerman has\nbeen on the UW\u2013Madison campus since 1987, when he joined as an associate\nresearcher. In 1992, he became a professor in the Department of Atmospheric and\nOceanic Sciences and has served in a number of additional leadership roles\nsince, including associate vice chancellor of research in the physical\nsciences, interim director of the Space Science\nand Engineering Center<\/a>, and for 18 years as director of the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August\n2019, Ackerman became interim vice chancellor for research and graduate\neducation, upon the retirement of oncology professor and previous interim, Norman\nDrinkwater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSteve is a\nlong-time campus leader and prominent atmospheric researcher at UW\u2013Madison, the\nbirthplace of\nsatellite meteorology<\/a>. I am confident he will serve well as our institution\u2019s chief\nresearch and graduate education officer in the years ahead,\u201d says Blank. \u201cAs\nUW\u2013Madison looks to maintain and strengthen its role as a research powerhouse\nand build important partnerships across campus and beyond, Steve is the most thoughtful\nand innovative leader for the job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In late 2014,\nthe university reorganized its research and graduate leadership, creating the\nOffice of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education. Ackerman\nsays the office has a strong foundation to accomplish its research and graduate\neducation missions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a scientist,\nhis work has been dedicated to studying the energy balance of the Earth\u2019s\natmosphere, driven by how much heat from the sun reaches the planet and how\nmuch escapes. He has also mentored more than 60 master\u2019s and doctoral students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, what\nAckerman says he will miss most in his new role is spending time mentoring and\nteaching in the classroom. However, he has plans to improve educational\nopportunities across campus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of our big priorities is to set up a\ncampus-wide mentoring program and we are working with (Graduate School) Dean\nKarpus and the Provost\u2019s office to establish that,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have that\nexpertise on campus and we\u2019ve started that collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ackerman is\nalso focused on improving the efficiency of the university\u2019s Institutional\nReview Boards, particularly to support clinical trials, and he is working to\nensure UW\u2013Madison maintains its\nresearch productivity<\/a>, as captured by the annual National Science Foundation\u2019s Higher\nEducation Research and Development survey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have made\nnew hires in the last year, adding new faculty; we won some big new grants \u2013\nsome supported by our UW2020\ninitiative<\/a>;\nand there are indications we will go up in terms of research expenditures on\nthe next HERD survey,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ackerman has\nlong been an ambassador of the Wisconsin Idea. With UW\u2013Madison colleague Jon\nMartin, he writes a popular column in the Wisconsin State Journal, Ask The\nWeather Guys, and he can frequently be heard over the airwaves across the state\nas a regular guest on Wisconsin Public Radio. Ackerman and Martin have been\nWisconsin\u2019s \u201cWeather Guys\u201d for more than two decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ackerman is\nan elected fellow of the American Meteorological Society and the Wisconsin\nAcademy of Science, Arts and Letters. He is the recipient of a NASA Exceptional\nPublic Service Medal and the Dorothy Howard Prize for Folklore and Education\nfor his work on the website and project, Wisconsin Weather Stories<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is also\nknown for talks around the state in which he describes the weather\nconditions<\/a>\nthat led to the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior in 1975.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ackerman was\nselected from among four finalists, in a search conducted by a 15-member\ncommittee and chaired by Bill Murphy, professor of biomedical engineering and orthopedics and\nrehabilitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe interviewed a truly extraordinary\ngroup of finalists for the VCRGE position,\u201d says Murphy, also chair of the Forward Bio Initiative<\/a>. \u201cSteve is an energetic and highly\ncapable leader, who will continue to expand UW-Madison\u2019s stature as one of the\nworld\u2019s best research institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vice chancellor for research and graduate\neducation leads one of the largest and most diverse research programs in\nAmerican higher education. Ackerman will oversee a\nportfolio comprising $1.2 billion in annual research expenditures, manage\nresearch policy and compliance, and lead graduate education through the\nGraduate School. He will also oversee the activities of nearly 20\ninterdisciplinary research centers, including the Wisconsin Energy Institute,\nthe Waisman Center, the UW Arboretum, and the American Family Insurance Data\nScience Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ackerman will officially assume the role on March 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Kelly Tyrrell, UW-Madison Communications<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CONTACT: Kelly Tyrrell, 608-262-9772, kelly.tyrrell@wisc.edu Steve Ackerman will serve as the University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison\u2019s next vice chancellor for research and graduate education, named today by Chancellor Rebecca Blank. \u201cI am extremely happy,\u201d Ackerman says. \u201cServing as the vice chancellor for research and graduate education is a great opportunity to help support research across campus, nurture […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":12564,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-12561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-stories","tag-cimss"],"acf":{"include_for_media_link":"no","guest_author":[{"first_name":"","last_name":"","link":""}],"sub_title":"","ssec_home_page_carousel_image":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2020\/03\/Steve_Ackerman_Credit_Jeff_Miller_web_banner.jpg","short_title":"Ackerman to lead UW\u2013Madison\u2019s research and graduate education"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12561"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12576,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12561\/revisions\/12576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}