biography
John has had a distinguished career in academia and the private sector. His experience, spanning over four decades, has included research and education in the classroom and laboratory, university research administration and development, as well as executive positions with major environmental consulting firms. Most recently Dr. Nemeth served from 1998 – 2009 as Vice President of Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU), the largest science and technology based university consortium in the US. During his tenure, he established and developed ORAU’s University Partnerships enterprise into the nation’s largest science and technology university consortium consisting of 122 campuses, including 99 major research institutions, over fifty of which had medical schools and large health-related centers. He worked with presidents, vice presidents, deans, and senior administrators of public and private universities in the development of research and education partnerships valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Projects included a full array of science and technology involving universities, national labs and government, and industry. While at ORAU, he was also responsible for identifying, vetting, and nominating board members, and was frequently asked for assistance in recruiting by the member institutions, and recruited weapons of mass destruction experts for use at the highest levels of the Department of Homeland Security. Prior to ORAU, Dr. Nemeth spent 15 years at Georgia Tech as Director of the Environmental Science and Technology Laboratory with a staff of over 100.