Campus Community,

I am excited to announce that Dr. Ilhem Messaoudi has accepted the position of acting vice president for research at the University of Kentucky. She will begin her work immediately.

Dr. Messaoudi will work with a dedicated team of scientists, scholars, staff and students to build on a decade of tremendous progress led by Dr. Lisa Cassis. Dr. Cassis announced earlier this summer her plans to return to the faculty and her own research program.

Nominated to this position by a number of her peers, Dr. Messaoudi comes to this critical position after three very successful years as chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics in the UK College of Medicine.

During her tenure as chair, she added several outstanding faculty as part of an effort to build out and expand our capacity and standing as an institution with expertise in infectious diseases.

She is, herself, an accomplished researcher with interests in maternal and child health, substance use disorders and aging and immunity. Her research team is composed of senior scientists and junior faculty as well as graduate and undergraduate students. Indeed, she is known for her enthusiasm in mentoring students who are interested in research.

Most compelling to me is her passion for team science and transdisciplinary approaches to research challenges. Dr. Messaoudi has been part of 200 publications with other scientists and, at UK, has worked with researchers across departments and colleges to tackle issues such as COVID-19 and maternal and pediatric research.

Upon her arrival at UK in 2021, she immediately joined our START team — composed of scientists, clinicians and staff — which continually wrestled with the larger public health and medical challenges associated with COVID-19. I relied on the START team and Dr. Messaoudi regularly for their counsel.

Dr. Messaoudi was drawn to UK because of the ability for and commitment to collaboration between and among disciplines — the kind of partnership she believes is distinctive on this campus, which has virtually every discipline alongside a growing academic medical system.

Her excitement about what can be accomplished in teams, across disciplines while using transdisciplinary approaches, is palpable. Dr. Messaoudi is eager to begin listening to, and learning from, people across our campus — a place where research and discovery are deeply embedded in everything from the arts, communication and social sciences to engineering, energy and medicine among more than 70 research centers and institutes.

Under the leadership of Dr. Cassis, UK’s research enterprise has undergone a period of incredible growth. Our $504 million research and development enterprise generated $925 million in economic activity and supported 4,903 jobs across Kentucky in Fiscal Year 2023.

More importantly, in my judgment, has been the growing focus fixed firmly on solving Kentucky’s biggest challenges through the creation of eight Research Priority Areas (RPAs), which are generating hundreds of millions of dollars in grants and contracts to seek solutions to problems ranging from cancer and substance use disorder to materials science and energy.

There is a strong foundation upon which to build at UK and in UK Research. Dr. Messaoudi is deeply committed to those efforts by strengthening existing partnerships and building new collaborations across our campus.

Our mission has never been more clear or necessary — to advance Kentucky in all that we do. Research, and the idea of inspiring ingenuity in every part of our community, is essential to our success. I know Dr. Messaoudi will be an inspiring leader in these efforts, working with so many talented and committed people.

Please join me in welcoming her to this work and this new position of leadership.

Eli Capilouto
President