Thanking Dr. Benedetto Piccoli for His Distinguished Service

Sent Wednesday, 11/9

Dear Rutgers University–Camden Community:
 
I write to share the news that Dr. Benedetto Piccoli has decided to step down from his administrative duties as vice chancellor for research effective Dec. 31, 2022. Dr. Piccoli has made significant contributions to the Rutgers–Camden community and will remain a valuable member serving as the Joseph and Loretta Lopez Chair in Mathematics. He will also continue as an active scholar within the Center for Computational and Integrative Biology.
 
Dr. Piccoli joined Rutgers in 2009 as the inaugural Lopez Chair in Mathematics—the first endowed chair at Rutgers University–Camden—after holding research and tenured faculty positions at institutions in Italy, including the University of Salerno and SISSA, the International School for Advanced Studies.
 
Since then, he has been essential to Rutgers–Camden’s rise in stature as a research university. He is internationally recognized for his scholarship in the areas of systems biology, networks, partial differential equations, and control systems, as well as for his strategic stewardship of research and academic programming.
 
Dr. Piccoli’s many contributions to Rutgers–Camden include his service as director of the Center for Computational and Integrative Biology and as our first associate provost for research. One of his signature achievements has been the formation of a logical and strategic approach to supporting and elevating the research enterprise of Rutgers–Camden by hiring a research coordinator and unifying the Research Office and the Office of Sponsored Research into a single, cohesive unit. 
 
In January 2020, Dr. Piccoli was named vice chancellor for research and became an integral member of the Chancellor’s Cabinet. As the inaugural holder of this position, he has refined the structure and operations of a centralized campus Research Office and effectuated meaningful collaborations with the universitywide Office for Research. He has promoted research partnerships that transcend schools and campuses within Rutgers as well as institutional boundaries with other organizations and universities.
 
The outcomes of Dr. Piccoli’s leadership of the research enterprise at Rutgers–Camden have significantly advanced our culture of research and grant support. 
 
Perhaps the clearest, most significant outcome of Dr. Piccoli’s work is manifested in his crucial contributions toward the recognition of Rutgers–Camden as a Carnegie R-2 Doctoral University—High Research Activity institution, which has firmly positioned our campus as a national center for innovation.
 
In addition, I am pleased to report that Dr. Michael Palis, University Professor of Computer Science, has agreed to serve as interim vice chancellor for research starting January 1, 2023. Many of us know him for his transformational leadership as provost from 2015 to 2021. During that time, he led our efforts to elevate our national profile as a research university and played a significant role in our achievement of Carnegie R-2 research classification status. Working with our deans, he created new structures that ensure our progress is sustainable.
 
Dr. Palis previously served tenures as interim dean and as associate dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and as the founding chair of the Department of Computer Science. Among his scholarly achievements, which are too numerous to report here, he is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). I am grateful that he has agreed to serve as interim vice chancellor for research. In addition, Mike has agreed to chair the search committee to help us secure a permanent successor to Dr. Piccoli; more information on that is still to come. Until then, please join me in thanking Dr. Piccoli for his many leadership contributions as an administrator, which have benefited students, faculty, and staff, and his continuing dedication to Rutgers University in Camden. 

 
Antonio D. Tillis, Ph.D.
Chancellor
Rutgers University–Camden