Biography

Robert A. Kennedy

A Minnesota native who has served in faculty and administrative roles at some of the nation’s leading public universities, Robert A. Kennedy became the University of Maine’s 18th president on April 15, 2005.  He arrived at UMaine in 2000, first serving as vice president for academic affairs and provost, followed by an eight-month stint as interim president.

Kennedy graduated from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, in 1968. After service in the U.S. Army, where he conducted research on vitamin A metabolism in humans, he earned a Ph.D. in botany from the University of California, Berkeley. Kennedy began his academic career on the faculty of the University of Iowa, followed by faculty and administrative appointments at Washington State University, The Ohio State University, the University of Maryland and Texas A&M University. Immediately before coming to UMaine, Kennedy served for eight years as Vice President for Research and Associate Provost for Graduate Studies at Texas A&M. While at A&M, Kennedy was a member of the Government/University/Industry Research Roundtable at the National Academy of Sciences and was a founding director of NASA’s National Space Biomedical Research Institute, developed to study the technological and physiological impediments related to space flight to Mars. This project involved extensive work with NASA, the Johnson Space Center and the Baylor College of Medicine.

Kennedy’s UMaine presidency has been marked by the ongoing development of what he calls the “New Model Land-Grant University,” an institution that leads statewide collaborative efforts with other educational and research institutions, sharing resources and finding creative, efficient ways to serve state needs.  He has traveled all over Maine, spreading the word about UMaine’s quality and value and helping to raise the institution’s public image to unprecedented levels.

He has also initiated “Campaign Maine,” a six-year fundraising campaign with a minimum goal of $150 million.  This is the largest private undertaking in UMaine’s 142-year history.