James W. Tracy Biosketch

James W. Tracy became the vice president for research at the University of Kentucky on October 1, 2007. In this role, he will lead the university’s $324-million-a-year research enterprise. With wide-ranging experience at a top-tier public research university, Tracy brings the vision, experience and energy needed to lead UK toward its Top 20 research goals.

For the past seven years, Tracy has served as associate dean for research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, ranked in the Top 5 of 29 schools of veterinary medicine in North America in extramural research awards (totaling nearly $20 million in FY06). The School of Veterinary Medicine has 65 full-time faculty, most of whom have one or more externally sponsored research projects. Unlike many schools of veterinary medicine, the majority of its research funding comes from federal agencies, with the largest share coming from the 11 NIH institutes and centers. The school averages 20 invention disclosures and six patents per year.

Since 2005 Tracy also led the UW-Madison Select Agents Program, which oversees the use and storage of biological agents and toxins regulated under the federal Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002. Since 2004 he directed the Biotron Laboratory, a unit that provides controlled environments to support research for campus investigators and commercial clients. 

Tracy served as associate director of UW-Madison’s Molecular and Environmental Toxicology Center from 1992 to 1998. Since 1994 he was also a professor of comparative biosciences.

From 1978 to 1983, Tracy was a research assistant professor in the Division of Geographic Medicine at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. During this time, he was also a senior research associate in Case Western’s Department of Pharmacology.

Tracy earned his doctorate in biochemistry from Purdue University in 1976.