Bob Smith, Ph.D., Provost and Senior Vice President
Bob Smith serves as Senior Vice President and Provost at Texas Tech University (TTU) where he reports to the President Guy Bailey. Bob is charged with oversight of the academic enterprise of TTU, along with serving as TTU Chief Executive Officer in the absence of the President. He also serves as academic liaison with the TTU System, TTU System Board of Regents, and Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. He has oversight responsibility for 14 colleges and schools, along with the Libraries and several additional academically related units and programs.
Prior to joining TTU, he served as the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville from 2000-2008. In this position, he had responsibility for academic affairs policy development and oversight of ten colleges and schools, along with several other academic units (e.g., Air Force and Army ROTC, the Teaching and Faculty Support Center, and the office of institutional research).
Before assuming the post at Arkansas, Bob served as Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Education and Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Connecticut (UConn) from 1997-2000. In this position, Bob had responsibility for research oversight at Storrs and the regional campuses and graduate education across the UConn system, including biomedical graduate programs at the Health Center in Farmington.
In earlier years, Bob served as Vice Provost for Research and Dean of the Graduate School at Washington State University (WSU) from 1987-1997. He also served as Dean of the College of Pharmacy during 1985-86. Bob’s earlier academic and administrative appointments included serving as James E. Bauerle Professor (1983-85) and Director of the Drug Dynamics Institute (1978-85) at the University of Texas at Austin. He also served in Professor (1977-83) and Associate Professor (1974-77) positions at UT. He began his academic career at the University of Iowa where he was Associate and Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry (1968-74). Bob’s Ph.D. (1968) and master's (1964) degrees (Pharmaceutical Chemistry) were earned at the University of Michigan; his B.S. degree (Pharmaceutical Sciences) was awarded cum laude by St. John's University in New York (1963).
Bob is a native of New York. His research and scholarly interests have been in the pharmaceutical sciences, communication, personal and professional development, and university administration. He is the author or co-author of 291 published articles and eight books, including The Elements of Great Speechmaking: Adding Drama & Intrigue, published by the University Press of America in 2004, Pedestals, Parapets & Pits: The Joys, Challenges & Failures of Professional Life published by Phoenix International, Inc. in 2005, and Where You Stand is Where You Sit: An Academic Administrator’s Handbook published by the University of Arkansas Press in 2006. He also edited a quarterly on-line journal (All Things Academic, http://libinfo.uark.edu/ata/ archived and managed by the UA Libraries) during 2000-2008.
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Contact Provost Smith:
TTU
PO Box 42019
Lubbock, TX 79409-2019
(806) 742-2184 Office
(806) 742-1331 Fax