Dr. Luis Cifuentes
Department: Board
Dr. Luis Cifuentes earned a bachelor’s degree with honors in Chemistry from Swarthmore College, an M.S. degree in Marine Studies, and a Ph.D. degree in Oceanography, both from the University of Delaware. He served the Texas A&M University System for over 28 years, including seven years of administrative experience at Texas A&M University and an equal number at Texas A&M Corpus Christi where he served as Vice President for Research, Commercialization and Outreach.
Presently, he is Vice President for Research, Creativity and Economic Development at New Mexico State University, a minority serving institution. In his sixth year, he looks forward to transitioning NMSU to Carnegie R1 status in 2025.
Dr. Cifuentes has 15 years’ experience in research development and administration. In his career, he helped create and manage many large, productive research institutes and centers, including the NSF-funded Integrated Ocean Drilling Program at TAMU; the Lone Star UAS Center of Excellence and Innovation and Texas OneGulf Center of Excellence at TAMU-CC; and NM Water Resources Research Institute, NM Space Grant Consortium, Physical Science Laboratory at NMSU and STEM+ Education Research Institute.