Peter K. Dorhout, Ph.D.

As the vice president for research at Iowa State University, Peter K. Dorhout brings a distinguished record of research, teaching, service and administration to the job. Dorhout previously served as the vice president for research (2016-2021) and dean of the College of Arts & Sciences (2012-2016) at Kansas State University. Before that he served as vice provost for graduate affairs and assistant vice president for research at Colorado State University, and as interim provost for Colorado State University, Pueblo. He was the 2018 President of the American Chemical Society. Among his many achievements are developing and raising funds for the College of Arts & Sciences at K-State ($100m campaign), and the Undergraduate Research Institute for Colorado State’s College of Natural Sciences.  He created a comprehensive corporate relations, research, and technology transfer office, K-State Innovation Partners, with a focus on economic development for the state of Kansas. As vice provost for graduate affairs, he developed a graduate student retention plan with Colorado State departments, and created a strategy to boost the experience of postdoctoral researchers. He also served as the campus leader responsible for creating the collaborative Colorado School of Public Health between CSU, the University of Colorado, Denver and the University of Northern Colorado. Dorhout earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign and a doctorate in inorganic chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Ames Laboratory at Iowa State University and a research collaborator with Los Alamos National Laboratory. His research specialties include thin film materials, environmental chemistry, and actinide and radiochemistry. For his contributions to the field of chemistry and for his work as an administrator and researcher, Dorhout was named a fellow of the American Chemical Society in 2013. He is the recipient of several other prestigious national awards including: Research Corporation Cottrell Scholar, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, National Science Foundation CAREER Award, ACS Exxon-Mobil Young Faculty Award for Materials Chemistry and an A.P. Sloan Fellow. He has written more than 110 peer-reviewed articles, edited books and book chapters. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. State Department. He is a member of several professional organizations, including a life member of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science.