Vice chancellor to focus on interdisciplinary collaboration

To continue strengthening interdisciplinary collaboration and transformative research, Pitt Senior Vice Chancellor for Research Rob A. Rutenbar has appointed Robert K. Cunningham to the position of vice chancellor for research infrastructure, beginning Sept. 1.

Cunningham will be responsible for the strategic leadership of Pitt’s research infrastructure, focusing on the effective operation, financial stability and future growth opportunities across all Pitt research platforms. This includes both physical and virtual laboratories, institution-scale equipment and facilities, and a renewed focus on all Pitt centers and institutes. 

“Investing in systemic support for cross-disciplinary teams has long been a priority for the chancellor and me,” said Rutenbar. “Rob will spearhead new efforts to bring teams of faculty together to form new centers and institutes and seek ‘solution scale’ external funding for both new and existing centers. He will also serve as deputy director for our longstanding Pittsburgh Quantum Institute (PQI), and work to broaden PQI’s visibility and reach,” he added.

“I am excited to be joining the Pitt Research office and working with the outstanding faculty, staff and students. When I started learning about Pitt, I was deeply impressed by the many talented people and the exciting research being pursued here,” said Cunningham.

Cunningham comes to Pitt from Carnegie Mellon University, where he is associate director of cyber assurance at the Software Engineering Institute. He is also an adjunct professor of cybersecurity and electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon.

Cunningham brings unique qualifications for this new role, Rutenbar noted. Prior to his appointment at Carnegie Mellon, he directed the Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the University of Maryland, which included sensing, communication, storage and classical and quantum research. He has also held several leadership posts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory, where he led multiple groups working on computer security projects.

“Rob’s expertise in assembling and leading enterprise-scale teams of faculty and staff will significantly increase our ability to mentor new teams to attack new problems at Pitt,” said Rutenbar.

Cunningham’s undergraduate training was in engineering, and he holds a PhD in cognitive and neural systems. Rutenbar said Cunningham’s experience across STEM, cyber science, physical science and neuroscience is an excellent match to the breadth of the Pitt research community.

“I’m delighted that Cunningham’s expertise will help support new brain science efforts now being planned at the intersection of medicine, engineering and arts and sciences,” said Rutenbar.