Dr. Rob Dunn

Bio

Dr. Robert (Rob) Dunn serves as Senior Vice Provost for University Interdisciplinary Programs at NC State University. In this role, Dunn oversees the Office of University Interdisciplinary Programs, which includes: the Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program, academies, the Biotechnology Program, the Coastal Resilience and Sustainability Initiative, NC State Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Integrative Sciences Initiative and the Shelton Leadership Center. He has worked alongside university leaders and campus partners to stand up the office, and is responsible for equipping new interdisciplinary initiatives for success, continuing to support existing initiatives, and achieving the office’s strategic goals.

Dunn also holds the William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professorship in the Department of Applied Ecology, where he devotes 20 percent of his time. He has been a member of the NC State faculty since 2005. Dunn manages the Rob Dunn lab on campus, is co-coordinator of the Leadership in Public Science cluster in the Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program, a member of  the advisory board of the Triangle Center for Evolutionary Medicine and serves on the executive committee of NC State’s Department of Applied Ecology. Dunn’s research has been awarded tens of millions of dollars in grants from no fewer than twelve different sources for work in 20 different countries.

Dunn received his Bachelor of Arts in biology from Kalamazoo College, and his Ph.D. in ecology and evolution from the University of Connecticut. He is an avid writer and has published many popular articles, in National Geographic, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal among many others, as well as seven books, most recently, A Natural History of the Future and Delicious, The Evolution of Flavor and How it Made us Human, with Monica Sanchez.

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