ITHACA, N.Y. -- Dr. Richard Coico has been named Cornell University vice provost for inter-campus affairs, Cornell Provost Biddy Martin has announced. This is a joint appointment with the university's Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. His term began April 15, 2005, and will continue through June 30, 2010. Coico also will have a faculty appointment at the medical college as professor of microbiology and immunology education.

As vice provost for inter-campus affairs, Coico will be the primary academic and administrative liaison between Cornell's Ithaca and Weill Cornell Medical College locations, and he will support and foster collaborative projects between faculty in Ithaca and at the medical college's locations in New York City and Doha, Qatar. 

"Dr. Coico is a distinguished scientist and an accomplished administrator," said Martin. "We are delighted that he has accepted this position. He is the ideal choice to lead our efforts to enhance educational and research collaborations between Cornell faculty and students in Ithaca and at the medical college [locations]."

Coico most recently was professor and chairman of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the City University of New York Medical School. In addition to the duties of his new position, he will devote some time each year to directing the Host Defenses course at the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar.

"I am delighted to be joining the administrative team at Cornell University at a time when interdisciplinary research as well as discipline-specific team efforts have emerged as the critical pathway to solving problems," said Coico. "The university's commitment to fostering inter-campus faculty collaborations and student interactions will undoubtedly generate innovative solutions to complex problems confronting investigators in the disciplines that constitute the traditional academic divisions of the biological/biomedical sciences, physical and social sciences, mathematical sciences and the humanities. I eagerly look forward to serving as the chief catalyst to this important university initiative."

Coico earned his B.S. degree in 1976 in biology from Brooklyn College, City University of New York; his M.S. in 1977 in medical microbiology from Long Island University; and his Ph.D. in 1981 in immunology from New York University.

A past president and current member of the Association of Medical School Microbiology and Immunology Chairs, Coico has been series editor of the methods journal Current Protocols in Immunology for the past 10 years. He is also the founding editor of Current Protocols in Microbiology -- a journal that will be published this year. In addition, he is an author of the textbook "Immunology: A Short Course," the fifth edition of which was published in the fall of 2003.

Coico's major research interests have focused on the study of regulatory mechanisms that control immune responses with an emphasis on antibody-mediated responses and the identification of innate vaccine adjuvants. More recently, Coico has employed computational methods to identify immunogenic components of hemorrhagic viruses (e.g., Lassa virus) that may have utility as candidate vaccines.