As the College of Engineering’s research projects become more interdisciplinary, a faculty member known for his breadth of scientific knowledge and experience uniting multiple fields in the laboratory fills the college’s top research position.

David Norton, a materials science and engineering professor since 2000, has accepted the position of associate dean for research and graduate programs. Norton started Jan. 1 and will replace Tim Anderson, who now serves as the director of Florida Energy Systems Consortium.

"I am very excited about the opportunity to be associate dean of research," Norton said. "It's a real honor and a privilege to serve the college, and I'm looking forward to working with faculty and staff across the college and across the university and really leverage the strengths that UF has moving forward."

After receiving his Ph.D. in 1989, Norton became a Eugene P. Wigner postdoctoral fellow at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee — a fellowship given to only three to five people each year. At Oak Ridge, he joined one of the first programs aimed at exploring power applications for high-temperature superconductors, a group of materials that had only recently been discovered.

Since then, his research activities in superconductivity and other areas have resulted in more than 300 journal article publications.

Richard Haglund, a physics professor at Vanderbilt University who has worked with Norton on several research proposals, said he's always been struck by Norton's "unusually broad range of understanding of chemistry, physics and material science."

"He really seems to be able to pull together a very broad range of both factual knowledge and understanding of the way people think in those various disciplines," said Haglund, who has known Norton for about 15 years. "It's hard to imagine a quality that would be more necessary in his new position."

Apparently Haglund isn't the only one who thinks that.

UF engineering Dean Pramod Khargonekar said two of the main reasons why Norton was chosen for the job are his wide-ranging research experience and his vision for the College's research portfolio.

Khargonekar said he and Norton hope to increase the college's research productivity by bringing in more external research funding, writing stronger research proposals and providing greater support for the 275 tenured and tenure-track faculty conducting research at UF.

"I think the great challenge for David that I have posed to him is how do we grow research enterprise in the face of diminishing resources?" Khargonekar said.

Khargonekar said one possible goal might be to increase the college's external research funding from $70 million to $100 million.

"It's ambitious and it is difficult, but not impossible," he said.

Another reason for Norton's appointment — and a circumstance that many say could help Norton accomplish his goals — is the "tremendous support [he has] from the faculty community, from the department chairs, from the search committee [and] from the staff," Khargonekar said.

Bill Appleton, director of UF's Nanoscience Institute for Medical and Engineering Technologies, has known Norton since they worked together at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the late 1980s. Their paths crossed again when the two professors joined forces to lay the foundation for the nanoscience center at UF.

Appleton said Norton has the perfect set of personal characteristics to be associate dean.

"I think the thing that's going to make David particularly successful in this job is that he really has the right temperament for the job," Appleton said. "He enjoys working with people, he enjoys working with a wide variety of people and he's very clever and very talented."

Steve Pearton, a UF materials science and engineering professor who has worked closely with Norton since 2000, wrote in an e-mail that Norton's calm temperament is "essential for working with faculty."

In fact, after praising Norton's hardworking personality, team-building skills, depth of technical knowledge and ability to organize complex tasks, Pearton was left with only one "drawback," one "serious error in judgment": Norton's lingering allegiances to Southeastern Conference rivals Tennessee and Louisiana State University, dating back to his days at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and as an LSU undergraduate and Louisiana native.

School colors notwithstanding, many of Norton's colleagues agree that they have only good things to say about him.

"David is just one of the most agreeable and fun people that I know," Haglund said. "He has a gentle and slightly sardonic sense of humor, which I love, and he is easy to talk to."

"I've never heard him say anything disparaging about any of the people that he works with," Haglund added.

John Budai, a senior research staff member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory who collaborated with Norton on the pioneering superconductivity research in the 1990s, said he respects Norton's calm, fair and honest way of dealing with faculty.

"If somebody had to ask me which scientist I think is most ethical, does the right thing and is a good scientist at the same time," Budai said, "he's about the top of the list."