Chad Steele named Tulane’s vice president for research

After a national search that attracted leading candidates from both within and beyond the university, Chad Steele has been named Tulane University's new vice president for research, effective Wednesday, July 1. Steele, who has served as the interim vice president for research since September 2025, joined the faculty of Tulane's School of Medicine in 2018 as professor and chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology.

Steele brings to the position his experience as a world-class scientist and administrator, as well as a deep commitment to strengthening Tulane's position as a leading national academic research institution. He assumes this leadership role at a time of unprecedented growth at the university, where federal research funding has increased 87% over the past 10 years.

"I am honored to be selected as the vice president for research and grateful for the opportunity to rapidly advance Tulane's research portfolio while navigating compliance in a dynamic landscape to protect, enable and broadly support faculty development in research," Steele said.

A leading researcher of lung immune response, Steele has co-authored 139 articles and served as principal investigator of nine National Institutes of Health grants totaling more than $9 million. In 2020, he was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology by the American Society for Microbiology.

"I look forward to working closely with Chad in the coming months and years to ensure the ongoing growth of the reach and impact of the extraordinary research taking place across Tulane's campuses," Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Robin Forman wrote in a message announcing Steele's appointment.

A native of Rayville, Louisiana, Steele came to Tulane from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), where he was a faculty member in the Department of Medicine for 11 years. While at UAB, he was active in the University Faculty Senate, serving as chair of the Faculty Affairs Committee and a member of the Research Committee. From 2014 to 2018, he led several projects in the Office of the Senior Vice Provost at UAB, and, in the final three years, served as assistant dean for research administration activities.