DALLAS (TIP): The University of North Texas June 20 named Narendra Dahotre its interim associate vice president of research and innovation.

Dahotre, who serves as a distinguished research professor in materials science and engineering at the university, will serve a one-year appointment while the university conducts a nationwide search for a permanent replacement for Dave Schultz, who left for a position at Northern Arizona University.

“I am honored to be able to join the leadership team in UNT’s Office of Research and Innovation,” the Indian American professor said in a statement. “I look forward to supporting and contributing in a positive and impactful way this next year.”

In the interim role, Dahotre will facilitate research projects that have been funded by the federal government, including UNT’s work funded by the Army Research Lab for a Tactical Shelters project and a Ballistics project.

Additionally, he will oversee the management of UNT’s shared instrumentation facilities across campus and work with the advisory groups and directors for each facility, as well as serve as chair of the new Research Space Adjudication Subcommittee and assist with the development, approval and implementation of partnership agreements with other universities, national labs and industry.

“Narendra brings incredible experience and knowledge to the position, which will help guide our division and lead faculty to the next level of research enterprise at UNT,” UNT vice president for research and innovation Tom McCoy said in a university news release. “Narendra will contribute substantially because of his success as a researcher and his knowledge of UNT, and I know he will be a valuable partner to our government and university peers in helping to coordinate important research projects.”

Dahotre is a former chairman of the UNT College of Engineering’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

A member of the National Academy of Inventors, he is internationally known and recognized in his field for his pioneering contributions to the understanding and engineering of laser-materials in processing and manufacturing, the university said.

The professor, who has been at UNT since 2010, has 16 U.S. patents to his name and has published nearly 300 articles in professional journals, as well as authored four books and edited 13 other books focused on laser materials processing and manufacturing and surface engineering.

He is a fellow of nine national and international societies, including the American Society of Materials and American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and is a founding editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Additive and Subtractive Manufacturing and editor of the Journal of Lasers and Optics.

A graduate of Michigan State University, earning his doctorate and master’s degrees, and the University of Poona in India, where he received his bachelor’s degree, Dahotre previously worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in faculty roles, as well as a director role at the University of Tennessee Space Institute-Tullahoma