Myron Salamon, a dean at the University of Illinois, visited UB on Tuesday for an open forum in Capen Hall with the hopes of landing the top research position at UB.
Salamon is the second of four finalists to visit campus for the job of Vice President of Research. He currently serves as physics professor and associate dean at the University of Illinois' College of Engineering.
Much like the forum with Howard Federoff this past Friday, the faculty members asked Salamon to talk about recognition of research, research opportunities and faculty incentives, as well as to elaborate on his own experience. Nine faculty members attended the forum.
Unlike Federoff, Salamon said he wasn't initially interested in the position.
"When a headhunter first came to me with this position, it was set up as a vice provost position, and that doesn't afford much administrative control," Salamon said. "I came here under the condition that I would be co-equal with a provost of research. If I'm going to have this position, I want to be able to actually effect change in the department."
Salamon, who has been at the University of Illinois for 40 years, told the group he is prepared to meet challenges and stressed that quality, not quantity, is what researchers should focus on.
"If the faculty are performing at the top or their subfields and are recognized by their peers, then they're succeeding," Salamon said. "If the funds are available and they're not reaching for them, though, then that's not good either, but I'd rather that they focus on the quality, not the quantity, of the research being performed."
Salamon also talked about the research opportunities available to the UB faculty, specifically with the Roswell Park Cancer Institute.
"This is a real opportunity to work with a first class medical center," Salamon said. "This is where the action is and this is the biggest frontier in research. There are ethical concerns, social science concerns, engineering issues, and clinical issues that can be addressed by working with this facility."
Salamon suggested UB can also promote better research by hiring the right faculty, providing start-up funds and space, and matching goals to faculty capabilities.
"Money's not the only measure of a successful research enterprise," Salamon said. "We need to support scholarship overall."
One issue addressed was faculty incentives. Sometimes, faculty members opt for "course buy-outs," where another professor is brought in to teach their class so the professor can conduct a research project, which sometimes can cause tension between the teaching and research communities.
Salamon said he did not consider this a problem.
"I want to encourage faculty to go out and do this research," he said. "I don't see any tension between teaching and research missions. The only tension is the time restraints that are involved."
Faculty will meet with the next finalist, Joseph Glorioso, on March 1. The time and place of the open session has not yet been finalized.
Glorioso is currently the chair of the department of molecular genetics and biochemistry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
