Garimella Named University of Vermont President

Suresh Garimella

The University of Vermont has named Purdue University’s Suresh Garimella as its next president, effective July 1. He currently serves as executive vice president for research and partnerships and will remain at Purdue through the spring semester.

Garimella came to Purdue in 1999 as associate professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering. He was promoted to full professor in 2002, the Goodson Chair professorship in 2006, distinguished professor in 2009, and was named executive vice president for research and partnerships in 2014. Under his leadership, the university has experienced consecutive record years in research funding and established significant new partnerships around the world.

He conceived and implemented an ambitious Life Sciences Initiative, establishing two new institutes that bring together faculty from dozens of disciplines to study integrative neuroscience and inflammation, immunology and infectious disease, to complement signature efforts in the plant sciences and drug discovery. In addition, he and Purdue’s provost partnered to initiate the Integrative Data Science Initiative, which is focused on applying data science research to pressing fundamental and socially relevant issues while establishing an educational ecosystem of data fluency to prepare students for the rapidly expanding future of a data-driven, knowledge economy.