Shashank Priya, Ph.D.

Research Committee Chair

Michigan State University Research and Innovation Vice President

Shashank Priya, Ph.D., currently serves as Vice President for Research and Innovation at Michigan State University, where he provides visionary leadership for the institution’s research enterprise, stewarding nearly $992 million in annual research expenditures.

Prior to joining MSU, Priya served as vice president for research and innovation at the University of Minnesota in addition to serving as special advisor and founding executive director of the National Security Research Institute and as the strategic advisor to the chancellor at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

A distinguished materials engineer and accomplished scholar with more than two decades of research leadership, Priya has driven pioneering advances in piezoelectrics, magnetoelectrics, flexible photovoltaics, and thermoelectrics. His work has not only expanded the frontiers of science but has also been successfully translated into industry applications, exemplifying innovation with impact. He is an elected Fellow of the American Ceramic Society and the National Academy of Inventors, and he continues to shape national and international research priorities in smart materials, energy harvesting, and bio-inspired systems.

Priya also founded and directed the NSF I/UCRC Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems and established the international Energy Harvesting Workshop—two influential platforms that have united academia, industry, and federal partners in collaborative pursuit of technological advancement and societal progress.

Priya earned a doctorate in materials engineering from Pennsylvania State University, a master’s in engineering from the Indian Institute of Science and a bachelor’s in math and physics from the University of Allahabad.