Leadership

The Faculty of Health Sciences is led by the vice president for health sciences and technology, who is appointed by and reports directly to the senior vice president and provost. The vice president for health sciences and technology's responsibilities include expanding interdisciplinary graduate programs in biomedical and health sciences, establishing and chairing the Executive Advisory Committee, advising the senior leadership on new strategic directions and promising funding opportunities, overseeing the appointment process, and leading and facilitating coordination of biomedical, translational, clinical research, and educational collaborations both internally and with external institutions.

Vice President for Health Sciences and Technology

The vice president for health sciences and technology is Michael Friedlander, PhD. A neuroscientist, Friedlander also serves as executive director of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, senior dean for research at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, and professor of biological sciences and of biomedical engineering and sciences at Virginia Tech.

Friedlander joined Virginia Tech in 2010 following five years as the Robertson Professor of Neuroscience, chairman of the Department of Neuroscience, and director of neuroscience initiatives at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Prior to that, he served for 25 years at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, where he was professor and founding chair of the Department of Neurobiology, founding director of the Neurobiology Research Center, director of the Mental Retardation Research Center, director of the Civitan International Research Center for Intellectual Disabilities, and the first Evelyn McKnight Professor of Learning and Memory in Aging. 

Friedlander received his bachelor’s of science from Florida State University and his doctorate from the University of Illinois. He did postdoctoral training at the University of Virginia and at State University of New York in Stony Brook. His research programs on how the brain develops and responds to experience have been continuously supported by the National Institutes of Health for 30 years.