November 20, 2017
Dear University of Oregon community members,
I am thrilled to announce that Robert E. Guldberg, a prominent expert in bioengineering and celebrated scientific entrepreneur, has been named the executive director of the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact.
A year ago, when we embarked on the search for a permanent leader of the Knight Campus, we hoped to find an extraordinary individual with a rich applied science research portfolio, acute administrative know-how, a strong entrepreneurial spirit, and the ability to harness the UO’s collaborative culture. In Bob we have found all of these qualities and much more.
Bob comes to us from Georgia Tech, where he holds the Parker H. Petit Director’s Chair in Bioengineering and Bioscience and serves as the executive director of the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience. He is also a professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. His research focuses primarily on musculoskeletal growth and development, regeneration of limb functions following traumatic injury, degenerative diseases such as skeletal fragility and osteoarthritis, and novel orthopedic devices. He has advised more than 50 postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, and published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters.
He serves on numerous advisory and editorial boards, and has held several national leadership positions including president of the Americas Chapter of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Internal Society (TERMIS-AM). He is an elected fellow of TERMIS-AM, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
While Bob holds impeccable academic credentials, it is his ability to effect change and create meaningful impact that really impressed our search committee. Bob describes himself as an engineer who speaks many different “languages”—engineering, biology, entrepreneurship, and the like. This fluency is just what we need for the Knight Campus. He has successfully navigated the path from scientific discovery to societal impact, having led large groups of scientists and helped translate research discoveries into technologies and companies that are improving lives and solving problems.
I am immensely grateful to Professor Patrick Phillips, who has served as acting executive director of the Knight Campus for the last year. Under Patrick’s extraordinary and selfless leadership, the Knight Campus has been transformed from an exciting concept to concrete reality. Patrick is a phenomenal leader who has created a stellar foundation for Bob and the Knight Campus team to build upon. I also want to thank the search committee, which Patrick chaired, for their outstanding work to select the Knight Campus’s new leader. I am delighted that Patrick has agreed to continue serving as acting executive director of the Knight Campus until Bob arrives in September 2018.
Under Bob’s leadership, and with the support of our outstanding faculty and the new top-tier faculty members to come, the Knight Campus will transform the University of Oregon’s ability to teach and prepare students, create discoveries and innovations, drive economic benefit, and create a significant impact that will make our world better.
Please join me in welcoming Bob Guldberg to the Knight Campus and the University of Oregon.
Sincerely,
Michael H. Schill
President and Professor of Law