Biographical Video
- Video Biography of President Vailas (Quicktime | Realplayer)
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Biography of Dr. Arthur C. Vailas
President Vailas, 56, came to Idaho State University from the University of Houston, where he held the dual role of vice president for research and intellectual-property management, and vice chancellor for research of the University of Houston System. He also held a joint appointment at UH as tenured professor of mechanical engineering, and biology and biochemistry. He held a distinguished chair in the latter discipline. By the time he left UH, that university’s research productivity had grown 400 percent, and UH possessed an impressive intellectual-property portfolio.
His skill at developing successful collaborative initiatives helped him obtain funding to establish a number of interdisciplinary research and teaching centers of excellence. One example: the innovative Texas Learning and Computation Center, established with $5.3 million in state and federal funding. TLC2, as it is called, provides a forum in which diverse information-technology projects from across campus come together under a single roof. Its facilities are a fully integrated, state-of-the-art telecommunications infrastructure and learning complex where technology-based applications are developed and deployed.
Dr. Vailas successfully negotiated an unprecedented affiliation agreement with the University of Houston, The Methodist Hospital—a major teaching and research hospital in Houston—and Cornell University Medical College. The agreement facilitates collaborative teaching and research among these institutions.
A particularly important accomplishment was Dr. Vailas’s involvement in organizing the multistate, collaborative organization Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA), and his appointment in 2002 to the RPSEA executive board. RPSEA works to help meet America’s need for technology to commercially develop its ultra-deepwater and unconventional onshore hydrocarbon resources in a safe and environmentally sensitive manner. RPSEA received $100 million in funding per year for 10 years from the U.S. Department of Energy. It is one of the largest national programs for oil and gas exploration and production.
Among the important honors Dr. Vailas received while at the University of Houston was a congressional appointment to the national board of the nonprofit Mickey Leland National Urban Air Toxics Research Center. He was later elected vice chairman. The NUATRC, a research facility, gathers scientific information on the human-health effects caused by exposure to air toxics. The center’s research program, developed collaboratively by scientific experts from academia, industry and government, seeks to fill the gaps in scientific data that are required to make sound environmental-health public-policy decisions. In 2002, Texas Gov. Rick Perry appointed Dr. Vailas to the Texas Council on Environmental Technology.
Prior to joining the University of Houston, Dr. Vailas held a succession of academic and administrative positions at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, advancing rapidly through the academic ranks. Within three years he was promoted from associate to full professor in the department of kinesiology in the College of Education. He received joint appointments as professor of surgery, in the College of Medicine Division of Orthopedic Surgery, and professor in the College of Agriculture’s department of poultry science. Throughout his time at Madison, 1988 – 1995, he also was director of the university’s Biodynamics Laboratory. He was a mentor to many master’s and doctoral students, an experience that deepened his commitment to putting students first.
President Vailas’s successful academic career began at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1982. He was hired that year as assistant professor in the department of physiological science. He was promoted to associate professor in 1988. A personal milestone came for him and his wife, Laura, in 1984 with the birth of their daughter, Alexandra.
President Vailas’s Ph.D. degree, from the University of Iowa, is in connective tissue physiology. He completed a three-year postdoctoral fellowship at Iowa that was funded by a National Institutes of Health National Research Service Award, and he was a research fellow of orthopedic surgery. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree magna cum laude in exercise physiology at the University of New Hampshire, which he attended on a football scholarship.
President Vailas’s academic credentials include authorship of numerous peer reviewed scientific articles and publications. He also was principal investigator in many projects supported by federal grants. He has been a consultant to national health care-related businesses and institutions, and numerous national boards and advisory groups have benefited from his service.
Over the course of his career, President Vailas has garnered numerous professional awards. Among them is the International Scholars Award from the University of Houston, and Outstanding Science Achievement Awards from NASA for COSMOS #2229, U.S.-Russian Space Program; and the U.S.-Russian Life Sciences Mission COSMOS #2044. Elected to the NASA Life Sciences Advisory Subcommittee, he served as study section chairman for the American Institute for the Biological Sciences on space biology. In 1988, the National Academy of Sciences Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems elected him to the National Research Council.
The native of Manchester, New Hampshire, is the eldest of five sons and a daughter of Greek immigrants. Laura Vailas, Ph.D., is a former associate dean in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Houston.