By Staff Reports
Arizona Daily Wildcat
April 20, 1998

Research vice pres. resigns

Michael Cusanovich, the UA's vice president for research, announced Friday that he is tossing in the towel after more than a decade as a university administrator.

"It's been an incredible run," Cusanovich said as he handed his resignation to Provost Paul Sypherd, according to an e-mail message distributed to deans, directors and department heads.

Cusanovich spent 11 1/2 years in administration, the last five as vice president for research.

He continued his research during his jaunt as an administrator, earning more than $3 million in grants since 1987 to support his research.

In 1997, with Cusanovich at the helm, UA research projects raked in a record $295 million - the largest amount in university history. This year, the National Science Foundation ranked the UA as the nation's 11th-best research institution.

Cusanovich said in the memo that he plans to "test the limits of the system" by continuing his research and teaching after he leaves his post in December.

In language reminiscent of "America the Beautiful," Sypherd praised Cusanovich's administrative reign.

"From mountaintop telescopes to biological sciences, top notch museums to American Indian Studies, you have championed the scholarly enterprise at this University," Sypherd wrote in a March 24 letter accepting the resignation.

Cusanovich, who holds a doctorate in chemistry from the University of California-San Diego, has researched biochemistry, specializing in biological electron transfer and biotechnology. He also has served as the director of the biochemistry program at the National Science Foundation in Washington and as a consultant for University Patents Inc. before coming to the UA.

Cusanovich, Sypherd and UA President Peter Likins could not be reached yesterday for comment.