Researcher resigns from vice chancellor position

A top research administrator at Kansas University Medical Center is resigning her post.

Joan Hunt, who last year received an $18 million grant to develop bioscience research in Kansas, will leave her post as vice chancellor for research on Dec. 31. Her duties were shifted last summer during a restructuring of the university’s research leadership.

“I am very involved in my own personal research program on pregnancy as well as the (bioscience efforts) and my decision was to focus exclusively on these programs,” Hunt said in a statement released to the Journal-World.

Hunt said she would remain on campus and continue her research efforts. James Voogt, senior associate vice chancellor for research, will fill the post of vice chancellor for research and president of the Research Institute.

Hunt in 2004 received an $18 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop bioscience research across the state through the Kansas IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence. That grant, she has said, supports the Kansas Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network, BRIN, a cooperative intercampus biomedical research program at nine campuses across the state.

Joan Hunt has stepped down from her vice chancellor post at Kansas University Medical Center to focus on her research.

Hunt said she brought in $4 million annually to the state. Her service includes membership on the National Research Advisory Council for the National Center for Research Resources, and membership on the executive council of the Society of Gynecologic Investigation.

KU last summer announced Hunt would have one of her titles – senior associate dean for research – removed as part of a leadership restructuring. The changes followed the hiring of Barbara Atkinson, who was put in charge of the KU Medical Center in January of 2005.

“I’d particularly like to thank Dr. Hunt for bringing national recognition to our research programs, for her advocacy in making research a major initiative on this campus and for her oversight and planning for the new Biomedical Research Center,” Atkinson, KU Medical Center’s executive vice chancellor, said in a statement.