Senior Administrators

Vice President for Research and Professor of Geography

Frank J. Calzonetti, Ph.D.

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Dr. Calzonetti joined The University of Toledo in 2001 as Vice Provost for Research and has held a series of leadership positions at the University and has served as a member of the President’s cabinet since 2006.  He assumed the role as Vice President of Research at the University of Toledo in September 2016.  Prior to his current leadership role, Dr. Calzonetti was Vice President of Government Relations, a position he held from 2011 to 2016 and as Chief of Staff to Interim President Nagi Naganathan during the 2014-15 academic year. 

Before joining UToledo in 2001, he was the Director of the West Virginia EPSCoR program under West Virginia Governor Cecil Underwood and held numerous administrative positions at West Virginia University for over 20 years including Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education in the College of Arts and Sciences.  As Associate Dean, Calzonetti was responsible for 11 Ph.D. and 22 Master’s programs.  Calzonetti also held a faculty staff position at Argonne National Laboratory from 1992 to 1997.

Dr. Calzonetti is the author of three books on energy facility siting and over 40 refereed journal articles in the areas of energy facility siting, industrial location and regional development.  He also was the principal investigator and project manager in research funding from the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Army Research Office, Argonne National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Commerce, American Electric Power Service Corporation, and the State of West Virginia. Dr. Calzonetti holds a Ph.D. in geography from the University of Oklahoma, an M.A. in geography from Wayne State University, and a B.A. in history from Wayne State University.

Calzonetti is also active in strengthening university relations in the community and advancing the University’s role in regional economic development.  He organized the creation of a Toledo solar energy hub with support from the National Science Foundation (serving as the PI) and arranged for The University of Toledo to host the Clean Energy Alliance of Ohio.  Following the 2014 Toledo water crisis, Calzonetti formed an interdisciplinary university Water Task Force that develops projects to address water quality issues.  Calzonetti led the University of Toledo’s successful application to win the Carnegie Foundation Community Engagement designation and the University’s designation as an APLU Innovation and Economic Prosperity University.  He serves as an external reviewer of applications to this APLU program.  Calzonetti served as the Chairman of the Board for NextTech Ohio, Northwest Ohio’s Third Frontier Program to support technology entrepreneurship with partners ProMedica Innovations, Mercy Health, BGSU, and JumpStart of Cleveland Ohio.  Furthermore, Calzonetti served as twice as the Chair of the Ohio Research Officers Council.

Calzonetti is a frequent speaker on the role of universities in economic development and has spoken and testified in hearings at the White House, the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, and at the state legislative committees in Ohio and West Virginia.