Lance Collins named vice president of the greater Washington, D.C., area

Lance Collins, the founding executive director and vice president who led Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus initiative in Alexandria, has been named vice president of the greater Washington, D.C., area.

In this new expanded role, Collins will serve as the senior university official responsible for leading Virginia Tech’s growing presence in the greater D.C. area with direct responsibility for the administration, operations, and strategic direction of the university's activities in the region.

"Lance will play a critical role in advancing our visibility, partnerships, and impact in one of our most strategically significant regions,” said Virginia Tech President Tim Sands. “Connecting the greater Washington, D.C., area with all of Virginia Tech will advance an innovation network that engages academia, industry, and government to develop the next generation of problem-solvers and address the most pressing needs of the region and the commonwealth.”

Collins will represent executive leadership in the region to ensure Virginia Tech’s teaching, research, and outreach efforts work together in support of the university’s goals. This includes oversight of campus and building operations, budget and personnel management, external engagement with community and business leaders, and development of a regional culture reflective of the university’s bold, collaborative, and innovative spirit.

“I’m thrilled to step in and define this new leadership role for Virginia Tech in the greater D.C. area. I look forward to working with faculty, staff, students, and administrators to further advance the exceptional programs in the region,” said Collins.

As a member of the Northern Virginia Steering Committee, which launched in 2023 with the charge of developing a future vision and organizational plan for Virginia Tech in the D.C. area, Collins will advance and build on the recommendations that are essential for growing Virginia Tech’s innovation network and becoming a top global research institution.

“As Virginia Tech’s commitment to education, research, and outreach in the greater Washington area enters a new phase of development, Lance will lead coordination of these efforts and engage external partners to serve the university’s mission in the region,” said Executive Vice President and Provost Cyril Clarke.

Since his appointment in 2020 as vice president and executive director of Virginia Tech’s Alexandria campus that launched with the opening of Academic Building One earlier this year, Collins has overseen the hiring of faculty and staff, development of research areas, implementation of a novel project-based curriculum, and growth of enrollment in the Master of Engineering programs. Today, the program has 19 faculty and has graduated more than 1,000 students cumulatively since 2020, on the way to 50 faculty and 600 students annually at full build.

With the university’s growing regional presence, Collins also guided the recent formation of the Institute for Advanced Computing and will continue to oversee the cross-cutting academic and research program anchored at Academic Building One. The institute will support new industry and government partnerships that advance research and learning opportunities and enable graduate students to address global-scale problems in close proximity to the nation’s capital.

With a distinguished career as a researcher, scholar, and leader, Collins served as the Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering at Cornell University from 2010-20 and the S.C. Thomas Sze Director of the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from 2005-10. In 2011, he was part of the team that successfully bid to partner with New York City to build Cornell Tech, which opened its Roosevelt Island campus in 2017.

Collins is a professor of mechanical engineering. His research is focused on the application of direct numerical simulation to a broad range of turbulent processes.

He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and in 2021 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Collins graduated from Princeton in 1981 with honors and holds a master's degree and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, all in chemical engineering.

Virginia Tech’s presence in the greater D.C. area is an important link beyond Blacksburg that is growing innovation across the commonwealth and beyond. This includes Academic Building One, which houses graduate programs with the Pamplin College of Business and College of Engineering. To advance pediatric cancer research, the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, based in Roanoke, recently established a laboratory on the Children’s National Hospital Research & Innovation Campus in Washington, D.C. The Virginia Tech National Security Institute is engaged in both Blacksburg and Arlington, and the university has an emerging Coalition for Smart Construction in Falls Church, among other initiatives that have developed in the region over the last 50 years.