University of Iowa President J. Bruce Harreld has named faculty members David Gier and Aliasger Salem co-chairs of the search committee tasked with selecting the next vice president for research and economic development.

“I am pleased that Ali and David have agreed to serve our institution in this capacity,” Harreld says. “Representing areas of scholarship and research so vital to our mission, they will bring their unique perspectives to bear as we look to the future of discovery on our campus.”

David Gier is director of the School of Music and Erich Funke Professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. From 2014 to 2017 he served as a faculty fellow in the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development and in that role worked on cross-campus initiatives that supported arts and humanities research and creative activity. He is also an elected member of the National Association of Schools of Music Commission on Accreditation. Prior to his time at Iowa, Gier served for six years on the faculty of Baylor University.



Aliasger Salem, professor of pharmaceutical sciences in the College of Pharmacy and leader of the Experimental Therapeutics Program in the UI’s Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, is the division head of Pharmaceutics and Translational Therapeutics and the Lyle and Sharon Bighley Endowed Chair and Professor in Pharmaceutical Sciences. He holds secondary appointments in the College of Engineering and the College of Dentistry. His research focuses on drug- and gene-delivery systems, cancer vaccines, nanomedicine, and regenerative medicine. He is an elected fellow of the American Association for Pharmaceutical Scientists. Salem joined the UI faculty in 2004; before coming to Iowa, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Department of Biomedical Engineering.