January 27, 2023

Dear Colleagues,

Yesterday, Vice President for Research Alan Rudolph announced that he will be stepping down from that role after a decade of distinguished contributions.  I wanted to take this opportunity to thank Alan for his work, and to pause and reflect on what we’ve accomplished in the research arena over this time – led by him in many ways, with contributions from faculty and staff (and students!) too numerous to mention as well.

It’s been a decade of consistent research growth, both in external research revenues and in other measures of impact, with a broadening and acceleration of accomplishments and productivity across all sectors of the campus – and significant progress was made despite a global pandemic, which offered both challenges and opportunities.  Alan was especially influential during the early part of the pandemic, enabling our campus to achieve excellent results with testing, monitoring, vaccinations, and policies that were a key driver in helping CSU be one of the nation’s safest campuses during these years. His leadership also helped us to engage with external stakeholders to apply our expertise across the state, and nationally, with great effect.

Alan launched many innovative and effective programs that were focused on growing our research capabilities, both with depth and breadth. The Catalyst program seeded programs such as the Partnership for Climate and Health, the Soil Carbon Solutions Center, B-Sharp and Mental Wellness, Rural Wealth Creation, Food Systems and Security, Zoonotic jump in Mixed Ecosystems,  our Climate Adaptation Partnership, and Healthy Aging Center (just to name a few!). Several of these resulted in more significant investments in interdisciplinary centers, such as the Data Sciences Research Institute, the Center for Healthy Aging, the Office of Defense Engagement, and the One Health Institute. The PRSE program has evolved into TUNE, and will continue to recognize and foster our pillars of excellence on campus.

Internally to the Division, Alan oversaw the creation of the Research Acceleration Office, CSU’s first Bioethics Advisory Committee, the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences, the Analytical Research Core, our Cell Sorting and Analysis center, the Bay Animal Facility, and expanded Infectious Disease Research Facilities; he’s also been a champion for developing our Virtual Reality and the Drone Core facilities.  In this era we’ve created the VPR Fellowship program focused on Graduate Research career development the Anschutz Fellowship program for Graduate Research, acknowledging the importance of graduate education as key to our research efforts.

External to campus, Alan facilitated corporate strategic partnerships including those with Zoetis, Lockheed Martin, Mars, and Woodward; he assisted in the creation of CERES, a land grant coalition focused on Ag Innovation and nationally recognized by the Bipartisan Biodefense Commission; he chaired the Colorado Laboratory Federation of 29 Federal Labs in the Region, as well as the Colorado Energy Research Collaboratory; was active in the Colorado Biosciences Association; and worked to represent CSU in DC, resulting in several new funding opportunities such as resources for the joint Engineering Program at Adams State and the Soil Carbon Solutions Center.

Alan obviously leaves big shoes to fill, and we are going to move quickly to fill them, via a national search. The full engagement of the campus in that process will be welcome as we move forward. In the meantime, please join incoming President Parsons and me in thanking and congratulating Alan on a job exceptionally well done!

Rick Miranda

Professor of Mathematics and Interim President

Colorado State University