Fotis Sotiropoulos, Ph.D.

Provost Sotiropoulos headshot

Fotis Sotiropoulos, Ph.D. became VCU’s provost and senior vice president for academic affairs on Aug. 1, 2021. He holds an academic appointment as professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering in the VCU College of Engineering.

Role as provost

The provost and senior vice president for academic affairs serves as the university’s chief academic officer. Provost Sotiropoulos’ leadership team encompasses academic, faculty and student affairs, strategic enrollment management and student success, life sciences, institutional research and decision support, global education, VCU Online and the Institute for Contemporary Art.

He also oversees the colleges and the schools on the Monroe Park Campus, which include College of Engineering, College of Humanities and Sciences, University College, Honors College, and the schools of the Arts, Business, Education, and Social Work, as well as the Graduate School and VCU Libraries.

Professional experience


Prior to joining VCU, Dr. Sotiropoulos served as dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences and as interim provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Stony Brook University. Before joining Stony Brook he was the James L. Record Professor of Civil, Environmental and Geo-Engineering; Director of the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory; and Director of the EOLOS wind energy research consortium at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Prior to that, he was on the faculty of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, with a joint appointment in the G. W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering.

Research


His research focuses on simulation-based engineering science for fluid mechanics problems in renewable energy, environmental, biological, and cardiovascular applications. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health, the Sandia National Laboratories, private industry, and other state and federal agencies, Provost Sotiropoulos has raised over $35M for research and research facility development and renovation. He has authored over 200 peer reviewed journal papers and book chapters and his research results have been featured on the cover of several prestigious journals.

Awards


In 2023, he received the American Society of Mechanical Engineer's prestigious Fluids Engineering Award. In 2017, he was named a SUNY Distinguished Professor and received the Hunter Rouse Hydraulic Engineering Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers. Provost Sotiropoulos is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the American Physical Society (APS), has twice won the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics Gallery of Fluid Motion (2009, 2011), and is also a recipient of a Career Award from the National Science Foundation. He is also a 2014 distinguished lecturer of the Mortimer and Raymond Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies at Tel Aviv University and is serving or has served on the editorial boards of several journals.

Education


  • University of Cincinnati, Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering - 1991
  • The Penn State University, M.S. in Aerospace Engineering - 1989
  • National Technical University of Athens, Diploma in Mechanical Engineering - 1986

See Dr. Sotiropoulos's full CV »