Marsico Appointed Vice Provost for Research, to Head Biosciences Institute
JONESBORO – Travis Marsico was named vice provost for research, innovation, and discovery and the executive director of the Arkansas Biosciences Institute at Arkansas State University, Provost Calvin White Jr. announced at today’s Fall Faculty Conference.
“Arkansas State University is a Carnegie classified research institution with high research activities, and we are fortunate that one of our most outstanding researchers will lead us in our endeavors to maintain and expand our research,” White said.“With Dr. Marsico’s leadership, we will set a new standard for research and creative activities and establish new goals.”
“What we do in our research has a profound impact on our state and on our society,” White continued. “There is no better instrument for pushing back the frontiers of knowledge than the American university, and with individuals like Dr. Marsico and our other top researchers, we will be looking to a new, deeper commitment to research at A-State.”
For an interim appointment earlier this summer, Marsico recently returned to campus after serving as a Jefferson Science Fellow with the U.S. Department of State.Marsico worked in the Office of the Geographer and Global Issues, a division of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, the State Department’s intelligence wing. He is the first researcher from the state of Arkansas to participate in the prestigious Jefferson Science Fellowship.
Marsico also spoke at the Fall Faculty Conference, pledging his area’s support to faculty to assist with the expansion of funding and opportunities.
“We can work together to unleash discovery and creative expression across all colleges on campus,” Marsico said. “Why do we need to increase research and creative activities at A-State? Because we owe it to our students and ourselves to generate knowledge, discover, innovate and create as a comprehensive, doctoral-granting, high research activity, primarily undergraduate institution.”
“We do a remarkable job of providing research opportunities for students, and so many of our researchers are involving undergraduate students in their labs and their work,” Marsico said. “Involving undergraduates is a huge part of our campus culture and tradition. Research provides incomparable out-of-classroom critical thinking and experiential professional development. We now turn our focus to growing our graduate programs and increasing campus-wide scholarship and research output. Our global challenges are vast, and they genuinely demand research to step to the forefront with solutions.”
Previously, Marsico was professor of botany and associate chair of the Department of Biological Sciences. He was the inaugural recipient of the Chancellor’s Medal for Research and Creative Activities in 2021.Marsico joined A-State in 2010 as an assistant professor of botany. He was promoted to associate professor in 2014, then elevated to full professor of botany in 2019. He was interim chair of the Department of Biological Sciences from May 2018 through June 2020.
A graduate of Arkansas Tech in biology, he earned his master’s at the University of Arkansas and his doctorate at the University of Notre Dame.
