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UNM’s latest candidate for a VP of research and economic development brings experience about how departments can weather sequestration cuts.
Richard Billo is the second candidate for the position and spoke at an open forum Thursday.
The VP position has been open since June when then-Vice President Julia Fulghum stepped down. An interim vice president, John T. McGraw, has served while the search for a permanent replacement continues.
According to the job description available at VPRsearch.unm.edu, the VP for research and economic development is in charge of expanding externally funded research at UNM; promoting interdisciplinary collaboration and collaboration with other research institutions; and assisting faculty in expanding their research role at UNM. According to the salary book available on the UNM Sunshine portal, McGraw makes $145,000 per year.
Billo, current interim associate VP for research for the University of Texas at Arlington, said he was the right person for the job because of his experience in the academic world, the corporate world and research for the federal government.
His first job was working for Intel, where he managed three departments in Barbados, Puerto Rico and Santa Cruz, Calif. With Intel, he said he learned how to work with and for high-tech companies.
After earning his doctorate in industrial engineering at Arizona State University and working at a research center there, Billo worked at Pacific Northwest National Laboratories and formed relationships with the departments of defense and energy.
After two years, Billo moved to the University of Pittsburgh where he worked in corporate research and diversity and learned to work with nontechnology companies.
“Some of these places had dirt floors where they would pour oil to keep the dust down,” Billo said. “It was a very different culture than the clean rooms I was used to.”
Next, Billo worked at Oregon State University and leveraged his industry connections with Intel for fundraising.
Finally, he came to UT Arlington, where he started as associate dean for research in the college of engineering.
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Billo said his varied experience contributed to his collaborative approach to fostering research. He cited an engineering project at UT Arlington that involved chemicals, which he said “engineers really aren’t used to.” The engineering department wanted to build a new lab in its facilities, but Billo instead let the chemistry department host the project.
“I don’t care about department boundaries or territories,” Billo said. “It’s not important to me. We’re all here to do research.”
As the interim associate VP of research at UT Arlington, Billo said he acquired an appreciation for arts and humanities as well as science and engineering programs.
“Universities are not just about dollars and cents, about big research projects,” Billo said. “Department performance in the arts and humanities is measured much differently.”
Billo took questions about how he’s dealt with the federal sequestration cuts and securing enough funding for research projects and how he could do the same at UNM.
Billo said he visited agencies, such as the National Science Foundation, in person, along with faculty, to more effectively lobby for funding.
“Doing that shows you have a commitment to your faculty and shows that what they’re doing is important to the university,” Billo said.
He said he encouraged faculty to spend a year working with the NSF and similar agencies to understand their organizational culture. Working with these organizations would also give faculty an opportunity to network and therefore increase chances of receiving needed funds.
“You have to get to know who you’re working with and they have to get to know who they’re funding and their priorities,” Billo said.
Billo said he encouraged departments to work with retired state and federal employees who have experience in their respective fields, because those employees understand best how government processes work.
Overall, Billo said he wanted to bring a new approach to UNM in terms of safeguarding its research funding during the sequestration cuts.
“You can’t just keep on doing the same things you’ve always done for your department funding,” Billo said. “You need to be much more proactive these days.”
Upcoming candidate forums
Morris Foster,
University
of Oklahoma-Norman
Monday, April 8 at 2 p.m.
SUB Santa Ana A&B
Timothy Ford,
University of New England
Thursday, April 11 at 2 p.m.
SUB Ballroom A
