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Jerry P. Draayer was appointed by the Board of Trustees of the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) as President in November 1998. SURA is a consortium of 60 universities in the southern United States including the District of Columbia. Among its most important programs, SURA manages and operates the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) for the Department of Energy. The $600 million nuclear physics research facility in Newport News, VA provides unique capabilities for a user community of approximately 1,600 researchers from 280 institutions worldwide.
Dr. Draayer has been involved with SURA since 1985 when he began serving the first of five terms as the institutional trustee from Louisiana State University. During his tenure on the SURA Board, he chaired the New Projects Committee for six years and served as the Board Vice-Chair for a term, before assuming the Board Chair in 1998. He was on the SURA Contract Negotiation Team for the Jefferson Lab in preparation for its first performance-based contract in 1995.
Prior to his current leadership at SURA, Dr. Draayer was on the Louisiana Board of Regents as the Associate Commissioner for Sponsored Programs Research & Development. This followed his directorship of the Office of Federal Programs for the Regents. His achievements with the Regents include the establishment of a Joint Faculty Appointment Program that established nine pairs of dual hires between Louisiana's HBCU's and other institutions of higher education.
In his 25 years as a faculty member in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Louisiana State University, Dr. Draayer has served as chair of his Department, vice-president of the Faculty Senate, and chair of the Council for the College of Basic Sciences. He also holds a joint appointment as a professor in the Department of Computer Science. He has supervised 16 sabbatical visitors, 9 postdoctoral associates, 14 Ph.D. candidates, and 4 M.S. candidates. Dr. Draayer continues as a member of the faculty at LSU.
Dr. Draayer is a corresponding member of the Mexican National Academy of Sciences. He was Guest Professor at the University of Tübingen in Tübingen, Germany (1992-1994) and Associate Professor at the Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg, France (1991-1992). His professional services include: associate editor of Physical Review C, conference organizing committees of numerous national and international conferences, external reviewer on three international university committees, and referee for a wide variety of proposals and journals.
Dr. Draayer has been principal investigator on numerous NSF and DOE proposals totaling well over $20 million in awarded grants. He has authored 4 books, published over 150 regular refereed journal articles, and is a regular invited lecturer at national and international scientific conferences which has resulted in an additional 100 publications.
Dr. Draayer received a Ph.D. in Physics and Mathematics (1968) and a B.S. in Physics and Electrical Engineering (1964), both from Iowa State University. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society. | 