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Chad Walton, PhD

Internal Advisory Committee

Interim Vice President for Research and Innovation, University of Hawaiʻi System

Chad Walton, PhD, is Interim Vice President for Research and Innovation for the 10-campus University of Hawaiʻi System, a role he assumed in July 2025 after joining the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation as Associate Vice President earlier that year. He earned a BS in medical microbiology from Northern Arizona University, an MS in biomedical technology from the University of Calgary, and a PhD in molecular biosciences and bioengineering from UH Mānoa.

A trained bioengineer, Walton has served as principal investigator or co-investigator on projects funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, spanning vaccine development, acoustics-based gene delivery, and molecular cardiology, and he holds several U.S. patents. Earlier in his career he held research leadership roles at the John A. Burns School of Medicine and in the Department of Surgery, where he directed trauma research for Hawaiʻi’s Trauma System.

As Assistant Vice Provost for Research and Scholarship at UH Mānoa he led campus-wide strategic research development, including the UH materials science initiative that secured significant external funding with broad faculty engagement. On the PAC-AID Internal Advisory Committee he advises on institutional research infrastructure and on aligning the Center with University of Hawaiʻi System research priorities.

Profile information adapted from Interim Vice President for Research and Innovation, University of Hawaiʻi System.