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CORVALLIS - An internationally prominent researcher from Harvard University with a joint appointment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been appointed as the new vice provost for research at Oregon State University.

Wilson C. "Toby" Hayes, 54, has accepted an appointment to head OSU's research programs beginning May 1, Provost Roy Arnold announced Monday.

"Toby Hayes will bring exceptional experience and leadership to Oregon State in the position of vice provost," Arnold said. "His scholarship in biomechanics is internationally respected, and he has served as principal investigator and director of numer ous projects supported by public and private sector grants. His understanding of research and its place in a university setting will provide strong direction for OSU efforts to develop new knowledge as Oregon's only Carnegie 1 Research university."

In his new position, Hayes will administer Oregon's most comprehensive and successful campus research program. OSU annually attracts more than $110 million in research grants and contracts - roughly one-third of the university's operating budget.

Hayes recently completed a sabbatical year at the AO-ASIF Research Institute in Davos, Switzerland. He has held permanent appointment as Maurice Edmund Mueller Professor of Biomechanics in the Harvard Medical School since 1988, and as director of the O rthopedic Biomechanics Laboratory at Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, since 1979.

Prior to joining Harvard, he served on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford and Northwestern universities. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees from Stanford and his Ph.D. in theoretical and applied mechanics from Northwestern. In addition , he has completed postdoctoral work at the Laboratory for Experimental Surgery in Switzerland and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. He has received numerous honors.

Hayes succeeds Richard Scanlan, who has served as interim vice provost since late summer.