Grant Master

Physicist and new Associate VP Satyendra Kumar shares his tricks of the trade.

Satyendra Kumar, UAlbany's new Associate Vice President of Research, will share his expertise in securing grants with faculty and researchers. (Photo by Carlo de Jesus)

ALBANY, N.Y. (July 25, 2016) — If you want to set yourself apart from other researchers when applying for major scientific grants, you have to make clear the scientific value of your work and its benefit to society.

That’s the lesson physicist Satyendra Kumar learned applying for his research grants, and it’s the lesson he’ll be sharing with UAlbany faculty.

Kumar joined the University July 1 as Associate Vice President for Research in the Division for Research. In his new position, Kumar will mentor faculty scientists and researchers, using his experience and expertise in securing grants and funding, and in developing coalitions with other research organizations.

He brings with him both international recognition as a researcher and a proven track record in securing major grants for collaborative research projects with scientists around the globe. Having worked for a high-tech company and for the National Science Foundation, where he won the Director’s Award for Program Review Excellence, he has a 3D perspective of the academic research enterprise.

Among the top grants he’s recently won in collaboration with researchers from five countries are a $385,000 National Science Foundation grant, a $1.05 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, and a $153,000 grant from Israel’s Binational Science Foundation. He has successfully mentored other researchers, at Kent State and elsewhere, to get funding and form partnerships with colleagues in emerging areas of research.

Kumar has spent most of the past three decades at Kent State University in Ohio, as a professor of physics and as associate vice president of research, securing a total of more than $15 million in research funding during that time. He’s also worked as a researcher at Tektronix Inc. and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

His research focuses on testing scientific concepts using liquid crystals, a field that has wide-ranging applications, including the development of LCD screens with faster on-off switching and higher contrast. He has over 220 scientific publications and 14 patents, and has won numerous national and international awards including one from South Korea’s Department of Science and Technology.

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