Dr. Richard Galbraith has been appointed vice president for research at the University of Vermont. He is currently a professor of medicine and interim senior associate dean for research in the College of Medicine and director of the Vermont Center for Clinical and Translational Science.

“Dr. Galbraith has had an outstanding record of research, teaching and service throughout his career,” said UVM president Tom Sullivan. “We are thrilled to be able to fill this important position with such a talented and experienced leader and look forward to the great contribution he is sure to make.” 

"I'm honored to be named to this important position," Galbraith said. "It is critical to the university's future that we continue to build on UVM's powerful, dynamic and varied research and scholarship enterprise and strive to find better ways to use resulting new knowledge for the benefit of the community. I am also eager to build on the increasing realization that strong scholarship and research attracts outstanding undergraduate students and faculty, and reciprocally, that outstanding students and faculty are the engines of future innovations in cutting-edge scholarship and research. " 

Galbraith received his M.D. and trained as an internist at King’s College, London. He received a multidisciplinary doctorate in molecular and cellular biology from the Medical University of South Carolina and served on its faculty prior to relocating to Rockefeller University in New York. There he served as the director of the General Clinical Research Center and Rockefeller University Hospital.

He joined the University of Vermont as a professor of medicine in 1995. He has served as chief of clinical pharmacology in the Department of Medicine, program director of the General Clinical Research Center and associate dean for Patient Oriented Research. He has also served as the director of Patient Oriented Research at Fletcher Allen Health Care.

He has participated in a variety of university-wide activities at UVM that have provided him with a broad appreciation and understanding of the depth and diversity of research and scholarship across the university. Galbraith has been a leader in the Faculty Senate, where he was elected to the Research, Scholarship and Creative Arts Committee, serving as its chair for the last eleven years. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Center for Clinical and Translational Science as a Matrix Center and the creation of the Clinical and Translational Science graduate degrees. Galbraith also has prepared cross-college grant applications that have drawn on his leadership and acumen in consensus building and inclusivity across multiple constituencies and disciplines.

Galbraith’s vision for research at UVM includes building an infrastructure that assists investigators in obtaining funding from a variety of sources; promoting disciplinary, translational and transdisciplinary scholarship and research; partnering with the business community to bring new knowledge to the marketplace; partnering with the community when establishing priorities for research that will affect the community; an on-going focus on the environment and health; and elevating the local and national profile of the scholars and researchers at UVM. He will work across all disciplines at UVM to support the university’s full range of scholarship, research and creative activities. His office will be open to all faculty, staff and students who are or who wish to pursue the discovery of knowledge and creative activities at all levels.

Galbraith is taking over the position from John Evans, who has served as interim vice president for research over the past year. “We are deeply grateful to John for his service this past year,” Sullivan said.