Candidate for UHM Vice Chancellor for Research: Simin Meydani

July 18, 10:30am - 11:30am
Mānoa Campus, POST 723

Campus and community members are invited to attend presentations by the candidates for the position of Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

The fourth presentation is scheduled as follows:

Thursday, July 18 (10:30 – 11:30am in POST 723)

Simin N. Meydani

Tufts University


Reporting directly to the Provost at Tufts University, a Tier 1 research university in Boston, MA, Dr. Simin N. Meydani currently serves as director of a university-wide, multi-disciplinary and translational research center with a budget in excess of $24M. She is an internationally recognized, award-winning scientist with more than 300 publications and over $40M of continuous NIH, USDA, industry and foundation research funding as PI or Co-PI. Dr. Meydani has experience as a successful institutional fundraiser, securing financial support through federal appropriations and industry and foundation grants and contracts. She is a seasoned administrator and organization leader with successively increasing responsibilities including: strategic planning, recruiting, supervising and mentoring faculty, staff, and students; directing research operations and educational programs; enhancing research infrastructure; and managing external and government relations.

As Director of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University (HNRCA), Dr. Meydani leads a center with a staff of 260, including 80 doctoral-level (PhD, MD, DVM.) scientists focused on a wide spectrum of disciplines and conducting advanced studies in nutrition, aging and age-related diseases. She initiated the first strategic plan in the Center’s 30-year history, identifying 5-year priorities in research, education and outreach, and institution-building. The cornerstone of the strategic plan is formation of multi-disciplinary clusters to address significant public health problems facing the older adults including cancer, obesity, cardiovascular diseases and immunity, inflammation and infection. As director, she has maintained a positive budget margin every fiscal year, and she has advanced and facilitated research through multi-million dollar renovations, acquisition of new scientific equipment, and creation of two new core services.

Dr. Meydani previously served as associate director for the HNRCA and as the director of HNRCA’s Nutritional Immunology Laboratory. She was also the director of the Cell and Molecular Nutrition Program at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts.

Dr. Meydani is President-elect of the American Society for Nutrition for 2014 and is currently serving as the society’s Vice President; she received the society’s Robert H. Herman Award in Clinical Nutrition in 2008, and Lederle Award in Human Nutrition in 1998. She was President of the American Aging Association from 2005 to 2006, and received the association’s Denham Harman Lifetime Research Achievement Award in 2003. She has served on the editorial board of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and the Journal of Nutrition and has participated in NIH study sections on Aging Systems and Geriatrics, Cellular Mechanism of Aging and Development, Geriatric Rehabilitation. Dr. Meydani has also served on industry and scientific advisory boards for Dannon Company, Novartis Geriatric, Bayer Consumer Care, and Coca Cola Company (The Beverage Institute for Health and Wellness).

Dr. Meydani earned her MS in Nutrition at Colorado State University and PhD in Nutrition, Iowa State University. She holds a DVM from the School of Veterinary Medicine, Tehran University, Iran. She is a fellow of the Executive Leadership Program in Academic Medicine, Drexel University.

View Dr. Meydani's full curriculum vitae (PDF download) or visit the search website here.


Event Sponsor
Vice Chancellor for Research, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Talia S Ogliore, 956-4531, togliore@hawaii.edu, http://manoa.hawaii.edu/executivesearch/ovcr/

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