Alum Peter K. Dorhout (BS, '85) was named vice president for research at Iowa State University in September 2020.

Dorhout, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and former president of the American Chemical Society, previously served as VPR and professor of chemistry at Kansas State University. His tenure at Iowa State began in 2021.

“Dr. Dorhout comes to Iowa State with an impressive portfolio of accomplishments, not only as an internationally renowned chemist, but also as a collaborative and forward-thinking leader,” said Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen in a news announcement in 2020. “Peter will be an outstanding partner for our faculty and staff scientists, as well as our graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, as they build on the university’s mission to create, share, and apply knowledge to benefit our world.” 

Dorhout holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a PhD in inorganic chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and completed a postdoc position at Iowa State and the U.S. Department of Energy Ames Laboratory, serving with Distinguished Professor Emeritus John Corbett.

He joined Kansas State in 2012, serving as dean of the university’s College of Arts and Sciences before being appointed to VPR in 2016. Dorhout has also served as vice provost for graduate affairs and assistant vice president for research at Colorado State University; interim provost at Colorado State University-Pueblo; and is a collaborator for chemistry and nuclear materials research at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Dorhout was the convocation speaker for the Department of Chemistry's 2018 convocation ceremony at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.