Pote named interim vice president for research at MSU

Contact: Joe Farris

Longtime faculty member and research administrator Jonathan W. Pote will serve as interim vice president for research at Mississippi State University.

Beginning July 8, he assumes the duties performed for the past four years by Robert A. Altenkirch, who recently was named president of the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark.

Pote has been the university's associate vice president for research since 1998 and a faculty member in agricultural and biological engineering since 1985. The Pine Bluff, Ark., native also was director of MSU's Water Resources Research Institute 1992-98.

"Dr. Pote's record of success as a teacher, researcher, and administrator makes him well suited to ensure that operations of the Office of Research and its reporting units continue smoothly, that our federal relations efforts are sustained, and that we continue to make progress in stimulating the development of research-based industry in Mississippi," said Interim President J. Charles Lee.

Mississippi State ranks 57th among the nation's more than 600 public colleges and universities in total research and development activity, according to the National Science Foundation. The university ranks 34th in engineering research and fifth in agricultural research among all universities in the United States.