FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Three faculty members with extensive experience in teaching, research and service are candidates for associate vice provost for research and economic development at the University of Arkansas.

The candidates are: Ralph K. Davis, professor and chair of the Department of Geosciences; Roger E. Koeppe II, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; and Douglas D. Rhoads, University Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences.

The position was previously held by Cynthia Sagers, who was appointed vice president for research at Oregon State University in May.

Davis joined the U of A faculty in 1994 and has served as chair of the geosciences department since 2008. A fellow of the Geological Society of America, Davis directed the university’s Arkansas Water Resources Center from 2001-08. Since 1990, he has been awarded 66 grants and contracts totaling $4.3 million and has published 30 refereed articles as author or co-author. He holds a master’s degree and a doctorate in hydrogeology from the University of Nebraska.

Koeppe, who joined the U of A faculty in 1979, has been awarded funding from several agencies, including the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. In 1982, he was awarded a NIH Career Development Award. Koeppe has been an author or co-author on 150 refereed publications. He has served, since 2008, as institutional director for the Arkansas Bioscience Institute and outreach core director for the NIH Arkansas statewide Infrastructure for Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) program. He holds a doctorate in chemistry and biochemistry from the California Institute of Technology.

Rhoads joined the U of A faculty in 1990 and directs the Cell and Molecular Biology interdisciplinary graduate program. Rhoads, an affiliated faculty member in the U of A’s Center for Excellence in Poultry Science, has been awarded a total of more than $2 million in research funding as a principal investigator from agencies that include NSF, NIH and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He has published 45 refereed articles as an author or co-author. Rhoads holds a master’s degree from Wichita State University and a doctorate from Kansas State University.