Senior Vice Chancellor Hank Foley will assume the chancellorship on an interim basis beginning Jan. 1.
Foley will take over as chancellor after two years of service as executive vice president for academic affairs and a year of service as senior vice chancellor for research and graduate studies. Foley served on the task force for graduate student health care earlier this year as well.
Before coming to the UM System, Foley spent 13 years at Pennsylvania State University as a professor in chemical engineering, the dean of the college of science and technology, and vice president for research at the graduate school.
After his arrival, Foley generated a plan to improve the university’s research efforts. MU’s goal was to raise its ranking in the Association of American Universities, a group of 34 universities, from No. 32 to No. 28 by 2018.
Foley’s plan revolved around five separate points, according to reporting done by the Columbia Tribune:
Increase collaboration between the four campuses across the UM System.
Promote entrepreneurship across all four campuses to advance ideas
Give faculty the opportunity to decide whether the university or the company they conducted research with owns their intellectual property
Reward faculty for commercializing their research, which could increase federal funding for research.
Borrow good ideas from other universities.
Foley has been honored for his work as a researcher and scientist at Penn State and MU. In January 2014, Foley was [recognized](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2015/1/27/foley-adds-aaas-fellowship-list-accomplishments/) as a American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow.
