Dr. Mark G. McNamee Biography

Dr. Mark G. McNamee has served as senior vice president and provost at Virginia Tech since 2001. As university provost, he is the university's chief academic officer responsible for all undergraduate, graduate, research, and outreach programs of the university.

Dr. McNamee received his Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1968 and his Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry from Stanford University in 1973. He then served two years as a postdoctoral associate at Columbia.

At Virginia Tech, Dr. McNamee has extended the university's efforts to expand research opportunities in biomedical and health sciences, bioinformatics, information technology, and nanotechnology. He led the effort to restructure the schools and colleges in order to position Virginia Tech for enhanced excellence across the disciplines, and his work resulted in one of the largest reorganizations in the university's history. He has also played a critical role in diversifying the university's administrative ranks.

Dr. McNamee is a board member of the Carilion Biomedical Institute, the National Institute of Aerospace, and the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. He serves as principal investigator of the National Science Foundation AdvanceVT program.

Before joining the Virginia Tech administration, Dr. McNamee spent 26 years at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), where he served from 1993-2001 as dean of the Division of Biological Sciences, an academic unit that administers programs in basic biology and involves 120 faculty members, 3,600 undergraduate majors, and 450 graduate students. He chaired the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics from 1990-1993. Dr. McNamee began his career at UC Davis in 1975 as a assistant professor of biochemistry. He was promoted to associate professor in 1980 and became a full professor in 1985. His research focuses on the structure and function of biological membranes, with an emphasis on receptors in the nervous system. Dr. McNamee is a tenured professor of biochemistry and biological sciences at Virginia Tech.