Chapman University has recently redoubled its research pursuits, bringing on Thomas Piechota as first vice president of research.
He’s only been on the job for a few weeks but is already assessing how to increase research opportunities and funding.
Piechota most recently was vice president for research and economic development at University of Nevada-Las Vegas, where he also was a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
He was selected as the inaugural head of research based on his experience, credentials and prior success in obtaining grants, said Chancellor Daniele Struppa, who explained that Piechota’s collaborative and diplomatic personality also dovetailed with what the university was looking for. And, to boot, as a civil and environmental engineer, Piechota can help Struppa in his plans to build an engineering school on campus, the chancellor said. The plans are still in the early stages and would have to be vetted, he added.
Piechota is working under the auspices of the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, which was established in 2011 as “an actual office with a budget,” Chapman spokesperson Mary Platt said. Before that, a director of research programs was based in the chancellor’s office.
Piechota, originally from Huntington Beach, said he was drawn to Chapman because of its “incredible growth and energy around wanting to grow the institution in strategic areas,” including research.
He said he will foster research in various ways, such as helping professors get grants, including helping them cut through any red tape, and promoting completed research projects.
He also will work to increase connections with the community to see which businesses and nonprofit groups are interested in becoming research partners, he said.
“It could be pharmaceutical companies working with the school of pharmacy. It could be the college of education studies working with school districts,” he said.
Some corporate partners and organizations that currently are engaged in research projects at Chapman include Redwood Shores-based Oracle American Inc., which is working with the Argyros School of Business to examine the price optimization of exchange rate movements, and Brooklyn-based Pfizer Inc., which is working with the School of Pharmacy to research educational intervention to increase immunization rates.
“Having Chapman faculty and students work together with corporate partners in research is an excellent way to enhance student experiences, institutional reputation and connect Chapman expertise with the needs of industry,” Piechota said.
Research in All Areas
Piechota said he wants to foster research in all areas, including humanities and the arts. Chapman’s new School of Communications already has faculty engaged in research, including in health communications, which is ripe for new solutions, he added.
“Eighty percent of errors in the health industry are due to communication errors,” he said. “It highlights the need for faculty to see what the theoretical issues are, [which] can also be applied to the classroom.”
Focusing more on research underscores the university’s commitment to creating personal relationships between faculty and students, Struppa said.
“These projects have the ability to focus the interest of students so the learning doesn’t remain something passive, where they go to class and read and learn and regurgitate, so to speak, when they take an exam,” Struppa said.
“The research becomes active. Because research, it’s a real process, not a fake, make-believe process. The professor probably doesn’t know the answer, either. Students can see how the professor goes about finding out answers to questions, and interesting questions to ask.”
An example of directly engaging students in research came when Professor Kerk Kee received a three-year grant for approximately $325,000 from the National Science Foundation in 2013. His project joined the fields of computational and social sciences to investigate how scientists develop technology to handle the voluminous amounts of data they deal with. He hired three communications students and a graduate student in computational science, resulting in an interdisciplinary team.
