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ATLANTA — Georgia State University has appointed Durga P. Mohapatra as associate vice president for Research Operations. In this newly established leadership role, Mohapatra will report to the vice president for Research and Economic Development and lead efforts to strengthen operational effectiveness, ensure regulatory compliance and promote a culture of continuous improvement throughout the university’s research enterprise.
“Dr. Mohapatra’s experience navigating complex research environments and supporting investigators at the highest levels makes him a strong addition to our research leadership team," said Donald Hamelberg (Ph.D. ’01), vice president for Research and Economic Development.
An experienced research administrator, Mohapatra joins the university from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where he has served as senior program director since 2019. In that role, he provided strategic oversight of a research portfolio exceeding $175 million and of more than 150 grants, contracts and cooperative agreements spanning translational and clinical science.
As the institute’s research integrity officer, he oversaw programs addressing research misconduct, conflicts of interest, research security, human subject protections and animal welfare compliance.
“Georgia State has established itself as a leader in public urban research universities, and I am honored to join an institution with such a strong commitment to innovation and impact,” Mohapatra said. “My goal is to ensure our researchers have the operational support, resources, mentorships and partnerships they need to succeed and deliver new ideas.”
Prior to joining NIH, Mohapatra was a tenured associate professor in the departments of Anesthesiology and Neuroscience at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He also served as a tenured associate professor of pharmacology and neuroscience on the faculty of The University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. He holds a Ph.D. in Human Biology from Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany and completed his postdoctoral training in pharmacology, physiology and neuroscience at the University of California, Davis.
Mohapatra will join the staff at Georgia State Oct. 1.
For more information about Georgia State University research and its impact, visit research.gsu.edu.