The UNM Rainforest Forum was created by the UNM Rainforest Innovations Board of Directors to bring together UNM and business community members to enhance and strengthen UNM’s role in economic development.
For the next Rainforest Forum, join us to hear from Ellen Fisher, Ph.D., Vice President for Research at The University of New Mexico to learn how UNM serves as a catalyst for discovery, innovation, and economic growth.
The UNM Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) is committed to the advancement, facilitation, and celebration of cutting-edge discovery and innovation. At UNM, we believe research is education, and as New Mexico’s premier R1 institution, we are uniquely positioned to provide an unparalleled education for students and world-class opportunities for faculty. UNM research is vibrant, diverse, complex, and spans across multiple disciplines.
A chemist and materials scientist with academic leadership experience, Dr. Ellen Fisher serves as the Vice President for Research at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and is a Professor of Chemistry. She came to UNM in 2021 from Colorado State University (CSU) where she served as the Assistant Vice President for Strategic Initiatives (2017-2021) and the Senior Faculty Advisor (2014-2017) in the Office of the Vice President for Research. Prior to these appointments, Prof. Fisher served as the Chair of the Department of Chemistry at CSU and as the founding director of the interdisciplinary, cross-college School of Advanced Materials Discovery.
Dr. Fisher has published over 160 original peer-reviewed articles that span diverse topics in plasma science, laser spectroscopy, materials chemistry, chemistry education, team science, and the responsible conduct of research. Dr. Fisher has graduated 22 Ph.D. and 6 M.S. students, and she has mentored ~50 undergraduate research students, many of whom have gone on to a range of graduate and professional programs. Prof. Fisher is a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the American Vacuum Society (AVS). She has served on the editorial boards of several technical journals and is currently an Executive Editor of the American Chemical Society journal ACS-Applied Materials and Interfaces. She is also co-founder of Divergent Science, LLC, a team science consulting group focused on utilizing the science of team science and empowering teams to put research into practice.
Dr. Fisher received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and Mathematics from Texas Lutheran University (formerly College) in 1986 (summa cum laude) and a Ph.D. in physical-analytical chemistry from the University of Utah in 1991. She performed postdoctoral research at Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque before joining the faculty at Colorado State University in 1993.
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