Pamela Padilla, professor in biological sciences and associate dean of research and graduate studies in the College of Science, has been named interim associate vice president for research and innovation at UNT.
Padilla began her new role Sept. 1, replacing Narendra Dahotre, who is currently serving as interim vice president of research and innovation.
In her new role, Padilla will help oversee the management of UNT's shared instrumentation facilities across campus and work with the advisory groups and directors for each facility. She also will serve on the new Research Space Adjudication Subcommittee outlined in the newly approved UNT Research Space Assignment Administrative Policy (Policy Number 11.011) and assist with the development, approval and implementation of partnership agreements with other universities, national labs and industry.
Dahotre says Padilla will be a valuable asset in helping move UNT forward and maintaining its status as a Tier One research university.
"Dr. Padilla brings rich experience and knowledge to the position, including her 16 years of working at UNT and her success as a researcher that will help guide our division and lead the research enterprise at our university to the next level," Dahotre says. "I know she will be a valuable partner to our government and university peers in helping to coordinate important research projects."
"I am honored to be part of the UNT's research leadership team," Padilla says. "I look forward to serving and supporting the various research programs and initiatives across campus."
Padilla joined UNT in 2002, and in 2010, she earned the UNT Early Career Award for Research and Creativity. She was a Faculty Leadership Fellow from 2015 to 2016.
Her research, which has been continually supported by either the NIH or NSF, focuses on how environmental and dietary stress affects living organisms at the cellular, genetic and molecular levels as a means to model human health issues including ischemia and diabetes. She has received numerous fellowships and grants including an NSF CAREER award.
Padilla is on the board of directors and treasurer of SACNAS, the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science, the largest STEM diversity organization in the country. She was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute and SACNAS Advanced Leadership Institute Fellow in 2017. Padilla received a Science magazine Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction in 2012 and was a National Academy of Sciences Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow in 2008.
Padilla received her Ph.D. in biology from the University of New Mexico and conducted her post-doctoral research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington.