Larry Nagahara has been named the Whiting School of Engineering’s vice dean for research and translation, effective December 1, 2021.
Nagahara will oversee a significant transformation and expansion of the Whiting School’s Office of Research into the Office of Research and Translation. Through this new entity, the Whiting School will provide greatly increased services and an infrastructure to better support the school’s research and translational activities. Over the past seven years, the Whiting School has experienced tremendous growth in faculty, students, and staff, research funding, new cross-disciplinary and cross-divisional research centers and institutes, and external partnerships.
In this new role, Nagahara’s responsibilities will reflect the wide range of activities now under the purview of the Office of Research and Translation. These range from driving the commercialization of WSE faculty innovations, increasing corporate engagement, providing expanded resources for proposal development, and establishing new industry partnerships to increasing students’ experiential education and internship opportunities. Other areas that fall under the new Office of Research and Translation include oversight of core/shared facilities, research and safety compliance, and conflict of interest and commitment.
Nagahara joined WSE in 2015 as associate dean for research. Prior to Johns Hopkins, he served as associate director in the Division of Cancer Biology at the National Cancer Institute/National Institutes of Health where he directed and coordinated program and research activities related to the expanding role of the physical sciences in cancer research, including the Physical Sciences-Oncology Center program. He previously served as the nanotechnology projects manager for the NCI’s Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer, where he oversaw the development of promising nano-based diagnostics and therapeutics projects.