Vorp selected for the 2024 ACC Academic Leaders Network Cohort
Data storage is a big problem, and among other common problems facing academic researchers today, a University of Pittsburgh researcher hopes to utilize a new opportunity to solve it.
David Vorp, Senior Associate Dean for Research & Facilities and John A. Swanson Professor of Bioengineering at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering, was selected for the 2024 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Academic Leaders Network Cohort.
Five representatives from each ACC school will collaborate to problem-solve and brainstorm with their peers over three meetings this year. The program, which was launched in 2018, provides an opportunity for faculty at ACC institutions to strengthen their leadership skills, build networks, deepen their understanding of higher education administration, and broaden their awareness of needs and challenges at their universities.
“Clemson, Louisville, and NC State will be hosting all of us for an opportunity to meet with others that have leadership positions to learn best practices,” Vorp said. “It's really a way for information transfer to occur to help all ACC universities do better.”
According to Vorp, one example of an issue facing most universities that he will explore with this opportunity is a lack of space to store research data.
“Storing research data is becoming more and more of a problem because data is just getting bigger and bigger,” Vorp said. “I'd love to use this opportunity to find out how other universities are optimizing research storage space for their faculty and bring that knowledge back to help our own faculty with that problem.”
As Senior Associate Dean for Research, Vorp and his team are tasked with putting together initiatives to improve the quality and quantity of research that comes out of the Swanson School. Among other accomplishments, his team has helped the school reach an all-time high in research expenditures in each of the last 6 years, and helped the school’s junior faculty win 15 NSF CAREER Awards in the past 4 years.
Including Vorp, five faculty from five schools across the University of Pittsburgh were chosen to participate in the program.
- Kevin M. Conley, associate professor and chair of the Department of Sports Medicine and Nutrition, and associate dean for undergraduate studies at the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
- Kyaien O. Conner, professor and Donald M. Henderson Endowed Chair; director of the Center on Race and Social Problems; and associate dean for justice, equity, diversity and inclusion in Pitt’s School of Social Work
- Erica Owen, associate professor and associate dean of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
- Vanitha Swaminathan, Thomas Marshall Professor of Marketing and associate dean of strategic initiatives at Pitt’s Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business
- David A. Vorp, John A. Swanson Professor of Bioengineering and senior associate dean for research and facilities in the Swanson School of Engineering, with secondary appointments in the departments of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering and Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science as well as Cardiothoracic Surgery and Surgery in the School of Medicine and Pitt’s Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute.