Michigan VP is latest provost candidate at UGA

Dr. Jack Hu is on the UGA campus today: Hu is a vice president at the University of Michigan. He’s one of four finalists to be the next provost at the University of Georgia. The next provost will replace Libby Morris, who has held the job on an interim basis since last year’s departure of Pamela Whitten, who is now the president of Kennesaw State University.

Hu, the vice president for research at the University of Michigan since 2014, also is the J. Reid and Polly Anderson Professor of Manufacturing in the College of Engineering. He leads a $1.5 billion research enterprise that spans the university's campuses in Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint. His accomplishments include the development of Mcity—an initiative focused on connected and automated transportation—into a leading public-private partnership for research. In addition, he has led the development of international collaborations in China, Israel and Germany.

Before serving in his current position, Hu was associate dean for academic affairs at Michigan's College of Engineering. From 2011 to 2014, he served as the university's technical lead for the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, a White House initiative that develops recommendations on manufacturing technologies, shared infrastructure, education and policies to strengthen advanced manufacturing in the United States.

Hu earned his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan.

Other provost finalists areRahul Shrivastav, vice president for instruction at the University of Georgia, Beate Schmittmann, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University, and Elizabeth Spiller, dean of the College of Letters and Science at the University of California, Davis.