Universities Research Association (URA) welcomes David R. Schultz as the new director of the URA Sandia Site Office (USSO) at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and a member of the URA executive team.
Schultz most recently served as the vice president for research at Northern Arizona University where he led NAU’s research enterprise, with administrative responsibility for the university’s Office of Sponsored Projects, Office of Research Compliance, and intellectual property management and commercialization unit, NAU Innovations.
“I sincerely look forward to joining the URA team and to drawing on my experience in research and research administration in both DOE labs and higher ed to help advance the missions of URA, Sandia and the URA members,” Schultz said, “It will be an honor to serve and work closely with these world-class research organizations.”
Prior to NAU, Schultz served as associate vice president for research and innovation at the University of North Texas and previously as chair of the UNT Physics Department. Earlier in his career he served as a research professor at the University of Tennessee and as group leader of atomic physics at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he led and managed research programs for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences and Office of Fusion Energy Sciences.
Schultz is an accomplished and highly published theoretical physicist, a fellow of the American Physical Society and of the Institute of Physics in the United Kingdom. He is past chair of the APS Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics. He received his B.A. in physics from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Missouri, Rolla.
“I am very pleased to have Dave join URA as the new director of the URA Sandia Site Office,” said URA Executive Director Marta Cehelsky. “Dave is an accomplished scientist and effective leader whose breadth of experience in research and in university and national laboratory management positions him to make substantial contributions to URA and to Sandia’s mission.”