Sides Named Assistant Vice Chancellor, Director of Research Advancement

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Cynthia Sides

Cynthia Sides has been promoted to assistant vice chancellor, director of research advancement, in the Division of Research and Innovation. Sides will serve as chief of staff of the division and report directly to the vice chancellor.

"Cynthia Sides brings talent, drive and institutional knowledge to this vital role," said John English, vice chancellor for research and innovation. "Her experience both as a researcher and an administrator, and her passion for connecting innovation with industry, make her the ideal fit for the division."

Sides' responsibilities in this role include:

• leading research development and advancement programming and its team to support enhancement of campus research growth goals;
• serving as primary liaison to centers, institutes and core facilities on campus;
• leading electronic research administration operations and team to support all division functions and facilitate campus research activity;
• heading staff research programming and training to enhance campus research growth goals;
• leading undergraduate research programming and team;
• overseeing diversity, equity and inclusion training and programming in support of an inclusive and productive culture within the division.

Sides has held a number of roles of increasing responsibility with the university since serving as founding director of the UA IGNITE (Industry Generating New Ideas and Technology through Education) program in 2013. From 2014-17 Sides served as associate director of the Office of Entrepreneurship, and since then she has been the director of the Office of Innovation and Industry Partnerships. Her work has been instrumental, either as a principal investigator or co-principal investigator, in securing almost $1 million dollars in external funding since 2017.

Sides holds adjunct and graduate faculty status in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and has taught nine semesters of Emerging Technologies in Industry through the graduate school's Materials Science and Engineering interdisciplinary program. She earned a Ph.D. in chemistry and biochemistry from the U of A and both a bachelor of science in chemistry and bachelor of arts in English from Arkansas Tech University.

"I am honored to continue working with the Division of Research and Innovation team in an expanded role and am excited to serve our U of A research community and stakeholders in a broader capacity," Sides said. "During the past 19 years, I have enjoyed being part of the research mission of the university, watching it transform and grow and seeing it from different lenses, including graduate student, research associate, principal investigator and partner for industry and community collaborators. It has been a pleasure working with our wonderful faculty, staff and students from various departments and programs throughout campus, and I am glad that these relationships will continue to develop and build through the responsibilities of this role. I look forward to drawing from these perspectives and bringing thoughtful, creative and analytical approaches to the new opportunities to facilitate, support and enhance our researchers' efforts and the vitally important research and innovation mission of the university."