Professor Jake Jensen appointed to University Research Committee Chair

SALT LAKE CITY, UT - Professor Jakob D. Jensen has been appointed Chair of the University Research Committee (URC). The URC is a university-level committee that develops and administers programs to support faculty research.

The URC Chair supports the Office of the Vice President for Research (VPR) by enhancing grant development and managing successful internal funding programs for scholarly and creative research at the University of Utah. Notably, the URC Chair assists the VPR Office in organizing internal competitions for URC Programs (e.g., Faculty Small Grant Program and Faculty Fellowship Awards) by overseeing the review process, including assigning reviewers, reviewing all application materials/committee scores, and guiding committee panel discussions. In a larger sense, the URC Chair provides potential programmatic recommendations on URC Programs and grant education/development to the VPR.

Professor Jensen is looking forward to this new challenge. “I’m excited to serve the university in this role. The URC supports faculty across campus and is central to research activity for our faculty. The Faculty Fellowship and Small Grants Program are among the most utilized, and valued, internal funding programs on campus.”

Professor Jensen has served as the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Humanities since 2015. He will continue in that role in addition to serving as the URC Chair. Recent past Chairs of the URC include Professor Joanne Yaffe (Social Work) and Professor Leslie Francis (Philosophy, Law).