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CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State University has named Ron Adams as interim vice president for Research, effective July 1.

Adams, former dean of the College of Engineering at OSU, has spent the past three years as executive associate vice president for research at Oregon State - a new position designed to boost the university's partnerships with industry and spin out more companies based on Oregon State's research discoveries.

He succeeds Rick Spinrad, who accepted a position as chief scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Washington, D.C.

"This is an important leadership position for Oregon State at a time of exceptional research growth for the university," said OSU President Edward J. Ray. "I look forward to working with Ron as we advance OSU's research activities and begin a national search for a new vice president."

Adams leads the OSU Advantage program, which helps commercialize innovations, launch new companies, connect existing business with faculty expertise and student talent, and provide Oregon with the work-ready graduates needed for economic progress.

"This Advantage effort remains important to OSU's mission and strategy and we will expand its impact in the coming year," Adams said. "In a broader sense, the collaborative culture of OSU will continue to create opportunities to increase the university's impact through discoveries from major research programs like the National Science Foundation Center for Sustainable Materials Chemistry."

"We will increase our efforts to help foster these opportunities by working with faculty across disciplines in order to address major challenges such as of health and wellness, food/water safety and security, impacts of climate change on forests and other natural resources, and the availability of clean energy."

Prior to his appointment as executive associate vice president, Adams was the engineering dean for 13 years, leading the college through a period of remarkable growth. The College of Engineering doubled the size of its Ph.D. program, tripled its research funding and helped spin off more than a dozen companies.

Before returning to OSU as dean after a previous stint on the faculty, Adams worked at Tektronix for more than 14 years, including serving as vice president of technology and as a senior Tektronix fellow.

Adams earned his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from OSU and his M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He served in the U.S. Air Force and worked at MIT Lincoln Labs before joining the OSU faculty as an assistant, and then associate professor of mechanical engineering. He took a leave from OSU to lead a team at Tektronix working on developing color printing technologies.