The University announced Monday that Kevin Smith is steppingdown from his position as vice chancellor for research and graduatestudies, effective immediately.
Smith will assume a new University position as a chemistryprofessor. Smith has taught chemistry in the past, but never atLSU.
At LSU, Smith has presided over the Intellectual PropertyOffice, which has been under scrutiny in recent months.
Rumors of a system-wide audit of the IP office circulated thecampus, but LSU System President and Interim Chancellor WilliamJenkins and IP Office Director Mani Iyer denied those claims in aprevious Reveille article.
Iyer was not available for comment on Smith’s positionchange.
Jenkins said Smith stepped down for personal reasons. He refusedto comment further on what those personal reasons might be.
“He has served us well,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins said arrangements already have been made to find asuccessor.
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Risa Palm referred allquestions to University Relations.
“Kevin Smith is a chemistry professor,” said Gene Sands,executive director of University Relations.
“It’s not unusual for a senior administrator to go back to theirbasic fields,” Sands said.
Smith came to the University in 2001 to serve as vice chancellorfor research and graduate studies.
Smith attended the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdomand earned his bachelor’s and doctorate degrees in chemistry. Hewent on to serve as a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard Universityfrom 1967 to 1969 and as a lecturer at Liverpool from 1969 to1977.
Smith joined the faculty at University of California at Davis in1977 and remained there until August 2001.