Ohio State professor John Horack explains the unique qualities of Ohio State University to host Starlab research at the George Washington Carver Science Park.
Ohio State University named one of its own as the university's next senior vice president for research, as the school and others around the country navigate a changing federal-funding landscape.
John Horack, Ohio State's Neil Armstrong Chair in Aerospace Policy and a tenured professor in the College of Engineering and the John Glenn College of Public Affairs, was appointed to the position in late September. He officially began his new role on Oct. 1, replacing Peter Mohler, who took over as president of the University of Alabama in July.
Horack has more than 30 years of experience in the spaceflight industry. He previously spent nearly two decades at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, where he conducted research in astrophysics and cosmology. He later served as vice president for research at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and as vice president of space systems at Teledyne Brown Engineering, a Huntsville-based company focused on engineered systems and advanced manufacturing.
Horack came to Ohio State in 2016 to hold the inaugural Neil A. Armstrong Chair in Aerospace Policy.
"John is a preeminent scholar, collaborator and visionary leader who shares our aspirations for research excellence at Ohio State," OSU Provost Ravi Bellamkonda said. "With deep experience in academia, industry and the public sector, he will be instrumental in helping us achieve our ambitious research goals and solidify Ohio State's position as a national leader in life-changing and life-saving research."
Horack will lead the Enterprise for Research, Innovation and Knowledge (ERIK) and will report directly to Bellamkonda. ERIK includes the university's strategic functions for research operations, innovation and partnerships, and knowledge development and discovery, in addition to the university's west campus Innovation District, Carmenton.
Horack told The Dispatch that he is excited for the "tremendous opportunity" to steward Ohio State's research enterprise.
"We're poised, as (Ohio State President Ted Carter) said, to move forward and create even greater change for the people of Ohio, the people of the United States and the people of the world," Horack said. "Research is a big part of making that happen."
His appointment comes as Ohio State embarks on a new 10-year strategic plan, Education for Citizenship 2035. Research is a core facet of the strategic plan, which includes a goal to grow its research enterprise to $2 billion by 2035.
"Research is the very first link in the value chain of prosperity," Horack said. "I think everyone looks forward to greater prosperity in the future. And I don't just mean monetary prosperity. That's health, that's wellbeing, that's life satisfaction, that's relationships.
"Prosperity isn't just measured in dollars, and research is the very first link in that."
University research -- and the federal dollars that fund it -- have come under a microscope this year as the Trump administration put higher education in its sights. The administration canceled thousands of research grants through the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health earlier this year, totaling billions of dollars in lost funding to university research centers.
Horack said universities will always play a major role in the nation's research ecosystem. The modality may change, he said, but the work will continue.
"(Universities) are the research powerhouse of the United States. Historically, our research universities have driven a lot of progress," Horack said. "In some sense, there are things that we have always been dealing with, and we will deal with them, and we will work through them, and we will create a better future through research and partnerships with all of our stakeholders in the government, private sector and elsewhere."
Perhaps it is his background in astronomy, but Horack said he is excited to "constellate" all of the stars that make up Ohio State's research enterprise, including its more than 1,500 principal researchers.
"A constellation with a coherency and a narrative, that is more than just the individual stars," he said. "When you connect the dots, it is an outcome that's greater than the sum of its parts."
So it is with the results of the university's research, he said.
"The consequences of the research we do and the impacts that we make -- social, economic, educational, quality of life -- all become more amplified through the integration and alignment of the strengths that we have," he said.
In addition to appointing Horack to his new post, Ohio State will also begin a national search for a chief scientific officer for the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. The position will oversee research and innovation strategy for the Wexner Medical Center, in addition to providing executive-level leadership for biomedical research across the university.
Higher education reporter Sheridan Hendrix can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at @sheridan.120. You can follow her on Instagram at @sheridanwrites.