Mark Burnham switched teams mid-season when he accepted the position of MSU's associate vice president of governmental affairs Tuesday.
Burnham, who holds a similar position with the University of Michigan, will start work in Washington, D.C., on April 1.
"He's awesome," said Steve Webster, MSU's vice president for governmental affairs, of Burnham. "We're really quite pleased to have his knowledge working for us at MSU."
University officials put together a search committee to fill the position, which was vacated in January, Webster said. The committee consisted of faculty members from across the university who are receiving federal funds for their research.
"Burnham stood out head and shoulders as the best candidate," Webster said.
Burnham's job, Webster said, is to match MSU researchers with federal funding.
"He has a very extensive background working with the federal funding agencies and the program officers," Webster said. "He already understands working with a world-ranked research university."
Burnham said one of his best assets is his familiarity with the federal staff who deal with research universities and funding for public higher education, but added that there still would be many challenges along the way.
"The whole education community is very excited by President Bush's support of the sciences and his science education initiatives," Burnham said. "But while there are huge opportunities, there are huge budget problems facing the federal government."
Burnham's new position was previously held by Howard Gobstein, who now serves as a vice president of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.
Former MSU President M. Peter McPherson is the president of the association.
In the past, Gobstein has worked to lobby legislators to fund the $1 billion Rare Isotope Accelerator, or RIA, project, which was put on hold indefinitely because of lack of funding about a year ago. The project would make the university the most technologically advanced institution in nuclear physics. Its main competitor is Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago.
Gobstein, who used to share a common office wall with Burnham, said the university could not have found a better person to replace him.
"Mark has a wonderful opportunity at MSU," Gobstein said. "Mark needs to help the faculty focus on a strategy and help them reach out to other institutions and across campus."
Burnham said his new position with MSU is a step up from his job with U-M.
"This is a tremendous opportunity to work with a wonderful team of faculty and manage the Washington office," Burnham said.
