Jordan Konisky Ph.D.
Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies

Dr. Jordan Konisky is Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies and Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Rice University. As an undergraduate, he attended Providence College and received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. After postdoctoral work in molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale University, he joined the faculty at the University of Illinois in 1970 where he later served as Head of the Microbiology Department, Director of the School of Life Sciences and Director of the University of Illinois Biotechnology Center. In August 1996, he joined Rice University. He has had sabbatical leaves in the Dept. of Biochemistry, UC San Francisco College of Medicine and in the Depart. of Chemical Engineering, UC Berkeley. His most recent research has focused on the molecular biology and physiology of microbes inhabiting extreme environments.

Dr. Konisky currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI). He has consulted for Amgen, several universities and most recently for AAAS and the State of Louisiana Board of Higher Education. He has been awarded an NIH Research Career Development Award Health and has been elected a Fellow of both the AAAS and the American Society for Microbiology.

As Vice Provost, Dr. Konisky oversees several Rice University administrative units including the Office of Sponsored Research, the Office of Technology Transfer, Office of International Students and Scholars, Office of Graduate Studies, and the Center for Education.