Interim Senior Vice President of Research and Innovation

Dr. Elliott Cheu is the interim Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation. He leads the Office for Research, Innovation and Impact, which includes the Corporate Engagement Program, Tech Launch Arizona, the Forge and the UArizona research parks. He is responsible for expanding the university’s capacity for knowledge creation and discovery; integrating efforts by faculty, students, staff and executive leaders to move inventions and technologies to the marketplace; increasing the university’s connectivity with external collaborators; spearheading industry and public partnerships; and increasing total research activity. Prior to this, he served as the Associate Vice President for University Research Institutes in which he oversaw the University-wide centers and institutes. Before joining the office of Research, Innovation and Impact, Elliott served as the interim Dean for the College of Science from 2019 to 2021. Dr. Cheu also served as co-chair of the 2018 Strategic Planning process for the University of Arizona. From 2008-2019, he was the Associate Dean for the College of Science and in 2017 helped guide the Honors College as interim Dean.

Dr. Cheu came to the University of Arizona in 1996 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics. He completed his Ph.D. at Cornell University, and did his postdoctoral work at the University of Chicago. During his time at the University of Arizona, he has built a successful research program studying the fundamental particles and forces in the Universe. He continues to pursue his research at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, where he currently searches for evidence of dark matter.