The position of vice provost for Research and Graduate Studies won’t be vacant much longer. Three candidates have been named and will be on the ISU campus visiting during the next month.

James Bloedel, Janet Greger and Jerome Schultz were recommended March 6 by a 14-member search committee to ISU Provost Rollin Richmond, who selected the candidates based on the members’ recommendations.

Stanley Johnson, vice provost for Cooperative Extension Services and chairman of the search committee, said members were looking for “a person who would be a good facilitator in helping our faculty and institution increase research budgets.”

The new faculty member will replace William Lord, who has been serving as interim vice provost for Research and Graduate Studies since Patricia Swan vacated the position last year.

The vice provost is responsible for many tasks at Iowa State, including helping the university secure financing for research.

Search committee member Diane Birt, professor and chairwoman of food science and human nutrition, said this is an important function for the university.

“We’re certainly moving into a time when we can’t expect the state to fund all our educational programs. We need to get outside funds,” she said.

Because of the focus on research, all of the vice provost candidates have an extensive scientific background.

Bloedel is chairman of the division of neurobiology at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix and research professor with the Department of Physiology at the University of Arizona.

Greger is professor of nutritional science and environmental toxicology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Schultz is director of the Center for Biotechnology and Bioengineering and chairman of the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh.

Richmond said this type of background is crucial for the vice provost to be able to perform his or her duties.

“The kind of research the candidates did is not so important as just having the research experience,” he said.

The vice provost’s duties go beyond being able to secure research funding, according to the vice provost Web site, located at http://www.searchVPResearch.iastate.edu.

The vice provost is also responsible for coordinating graduate programs, technology transfer and research services. Because of the position’s other responsibilities, the search committee looked at many other qualities before making its recommendations.

“We also wanted to know about administrative skills in scholarship, creative achievement, their reputation as a teacher, commitment to grad students, leadership and interpersonal skills, their vision for the role of research and how they would foster commitment to diversity,” Birt said.

Since the vice provost is responsible for coordinating graduate programs at Iowa State, each candidate will have time to meet with graduate students at some point during their visits.

Johnson said graduate students will have the opportunity to fill out evaluation forms on the candidates.

The provost, however, makes the final recommendation about who is best for the job.

“The committee makes a recommendation to me. I discuss it with my colleagues and pull information together for [ISU] President [Martin] Jischke. The Regents of the State Universities of Iowa then decide, but they’ve never turned down our recommendation,” Richmond said.

Each candidate will hold both an open and diversity forum. A schedule of the forums and other information can be found at the vice provost Web site.

Birt said the forums are open to all members of the ISU community.

“We encourage students, staff and everybody to come listen and fill out evaluation forms for the committee,” she said.