Vice President for Research

Dr. Jeffrey R. Seemann serves as Vice President for Research at Texas A&M University, as well as Chief Research Officer for The Texas A&M University System. Additionally, Dr. Seemann is a professor in the Departments of Biology and Biochemistry/Biophysics at Texas A&M.

As Vice President for Research, Dr. Seemann is committed to working with the faculty, staff, and administrators to expand and enhance the University’s $689 million-plus research enterprise, with the goal to propel the institution into the top 10 public research universities in America by the year 2020. Texas A&M currently stands among the nation’s 20 largest research universities and is ranked third in total research expenditures for institutions without medical schools. Dr. Seemann leads a host of programs and initiatives furthering research, scholarship, and creative initiatives at Texas A&M, as well as overseeing the University’s critical research support operations. He is actively engaged in leading the effort to redefine the vision and mission of the Texas A&M University Research Park to position it as a catalyst for research and commercialization activity at Texas A&M and as a vehicle for economic development in the Brazos Valley and the state of Texas. In his role as Chief Research Officer for the A&M System, Dr. Seemann works to facilitate research growth at all of the A&M System’s 11 universities, seven state agencies, and Health Science Center.

Dr. Seemann is an internationally recognized plant biologist with research interests in the ecology, physiology, biochemistry, and molecular biology of photosynthesis and global change. Prior to his arrival at Texas A&M, Dr. Seemann served a very successful tenure as Dean of the College of the Environment and Life Sciences and Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Rhode Island, where he also served as Director of the Rhode Island Agricultural Experiment Station and Rhode Island Cooperative Extension. In addition, Dr. Seemann was appointed by the Governor to co-chair the Rhode Island Science and Technology Advisory Council and to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of the Slater Technology Fund, the state’s venture capital organization. Prior to that, he was Professor and Chair of the Department of Biochemistry in the School of Medicine and College of Agriculture, Biotechnology, and Natural Resources at the University of Nevada, Reno.

In the course of his personal research career, Dr. Seemann has been awarded more than $24 million in research funding from state and federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He has published more than 75 peer-reviewed publications in major journals, including Nature and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), and is listed by Current Contents as one of the most highly cited researchers in the world in the area of plant and animal sciences.

Dr. Seemann received his bachelor’s degree with honors from Oberlin College with a major in biology, and his doctoral degree from Stanford University in biological sciences.