Message from President Daniels on departure of Suresh Garimella

February 22, 2019

To the Purdue community,

I write to let you know that this afternoon one of our outstanding senior leaders, Suresh Garimella, was officially named president of the University of Vermont, effective July 1. 

I have known for some time that our friend Suresh was a candidate for this position and I was afraid that UVM would make this very wise decision. 

We are extremely proud that Purdue produces the type of leaders who are recruited and wanted at other highly regarded institutions, but, as is always the case, such leaders are difficult to replace and I am not exaggerating to say that the vacancy created by Suresh’s departure will be especially hard to fill. 

The critical role Suresh holds at Purdue is one that takes the unusual ability to combine research expertise, education and engagement and to link each of those with strategic partners around the world. We created this role, combining our research office with a new global partnerships office, with confidence due to Dr. Garimella’s unique strengths and we’ve seen outstanding success in the nearly five years he has held this position.  Under his leadership, research awards reached a record $454 million in 2018, up from $319 in 2013. And in just the past year, the National Science Foundation named Purdue as the location for the national Center for Innovative and Strategic Transformation of Alkane Resources, and the Semiconductor Research Corp. named Purdue as the site for its national Center for Brain-inspired Computing Enabling Autonomous Intelligence. In addition, we’ve announced major partnerships with corporations such as Rolls-Royce, GE Aviation, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories and Eli Lilly and Company, among others.

Suresh will remain at Purdue through the spring semester and will take over at Vermont on July 1. We are counting on Purdue's strong and growing reputation to help us find the next great leader in this critical position. Additional information about our steps in that direction will be forthcoming.

In the meantime, I hope you all will join me in congratulating Suresh on this prestigious appointment and thank him for his service to the Purdue community.

Sincerely,

Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr.
President

Purdue EVP of research, partnerships named president at University of Vermont
Suresh Garimella to become next University of Vermont president