Alan Snyder
Alan Snyder, who has led development of Lehigh’s Mountaintop initiative, is Vice President and Associate Provost for Research and Graduate Studies at Lehigh University. A bioengineer by training, his research career focused on organ replacement, and included theoretical work, hardware and embedded software, design for use by both professional caregivers and lay people, and patient care. That work, in which what happened at the bedside shaped the content of research in the lab, provided him with a particular perspective on the relationship between university research and human needs and aspirations, and on environments that bridged practical concerns with basic research as foundation for graduate and undergraduate education. He has carried that perspective into his work at Lehigh, seeking to build on the university’s tradition of relating theory to practice and working to make the research environment a critical resource for education in a residential setting.
