Howard Federoff, a finalist for UB's top research job, talked about his experience and addressed some of the challenges facing the UB research community at an open forum Friday in Park Hall.
Eleven professors attended the hour-long discussion with Federoff, who is the first of four finalists to visit campus for the job of Vice President for Research. Federoff now serves as a senior associate dean at the University of Rochester's medical school.
The professors asked Federoff questions about his research interests and his views on specific issues such as faculty incentives, indirect cost recovery, and intellectual property laws.
Federoff told the group that while he has spent much of his career at relatively small schools, doing research on neuroscience and gene therapy, he is ready for the challenge of a top-level administrative job at a big school.
He said his first priority at UB would be to recruit young, talented researchers.
"The single most important thing I have personally learned is that you need to have outstanding people," Federoff said. "Part of it is the recruitment of young, outstanding people. I've seen from my own experience that they have a different sense of where to set the bar."
Federoff suggested incentives could be used to spur current faculty to do more research. He said he would work to identify people with scholarly interests and do all he could to get them to pursue that interest.
"We should determine what might be the appropriate incentive to get people to think differently about what they contribute," he said.
But an incentive plan for faculty could hurt the quality of teaching at UB, according to Maureen Jameson, an assistant professor of Romance languages who attended the meeting.
Jameson asked Federoff if he was concerned that by "buying out" faculty to do research, he might take some of UB's best teachers out of the classroom.
That wouldn't have to happen, Federoff said, if the incentive plan was used on a case-by-case basis rather than as a broad strategy.
Indirect cost recovery, which is another hot research issue, came up several times at the meeting. Indirect costs are funds added to grants that go to a university to pay for other expenses such as equipment and the cost of writing the grant.
Recovering those costs can be a confusing process, the professors at the meeting said. Federoff said he would clarify how researchers can recover indirect costs, and make sure that a fair percentage trickles back to the researcher.
"There needs to be a transparency relating to how indirect cost recovery works with regard to its distribution and allocation," he said.
Research at UB is also hurt by tough intellectual property rules imposed by SUNY, the professors said. Federoff said that he would help researchers understand the rules, and seek revenue through royalties from patent licenses.
"I think that intellectual property is as important in terms of revenue generation as extramural grant support," he said.
While many faculty members said they were impressed with Federoff's presentation, they said they would not comment until they meet the other candidates.
Faculty will meet with the next finalist, Myron Salamon, on Tuesday at 10 a.m. in the Poetry and Rare Books Room in Capen Hall. Salamon is currently the associate dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois.
Federoff told the group of professors that even if he gets the job at UB, he will continue to do research.
"I live for research," he said. "I don't see ever being able to give it up entirely."
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
