Remzi Seker, Ph.D.

Vice President for Research & Innovation

Western Michigan University

Dr. Remzi Seker was named the Vice President for Research & Innovation at Western Michigan University in April 2022. Dr. Seker was previously the founding Associate Provost for Research at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU). He is a skilled collaborative leader working impactfully with a wide spectrum of stakeholders to forward strategic change initiatives focused around a common vision. As the chief research officer for the university, Dr. Seker leads the University’s research enterprise, which is spread across three campuses: Daytona Beach (FL), Prescott (AZ) and Worldwide (Online). He works across levels of administration, campuses, colleges and departments, and directly with faculty, to build collaborations, form productive research teams, and shift policies and practices to foster expanded opportunities for research effectiveness. In enhancing the research enterprise, he has developed and leveraged relationships across sectors and industries, including with other academic institutions, the aerospace and tech industries, state and federal government institutions and the military.

Through targeted research development efforts led by Dr. Seker, ERAU has multiplied its success rate in funding competitions involving industry partnerships. Dr. Seker leads the efforts to establish the Embry-Riddle Research Centers (ERCs). The first of these, the Center for Aerospace Resilience (CAR), was established in the third quarter of 2020 with $1.65M in state funding. CAR subsequently received a $6.56M federal grant to further support new research projects. The ERAU Near Lab is currently housed at the CAR, and Dr. Seker is responsible for overseeing its growth and operations. Dr. Seker also oversees the university’s efforts in undergraduate student research involvement, which has increased to upward of 98% across both residential campuses during his tenure. Through strategic use of internal seed funding combined with mentoring, Dr. Seker has supported faculty in winning multiple NSF CAREER awards and DOD Young Investigator Awards, in addition to traditional federal awards. Dr. Seker also leads the Presidential Research Fellows Hiring Initiative, through which ERAU recruits faculty members with proven research records in strategic growth areas. He has also spearheaded the development and facilitation of shared research facilities and resources available to faculty across the three campuses.

Throughout his career, Dr. Seker has led development of multiple academic programs. His most-recently developed programs include the MS in Cybersecurity Engineering and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, both at ERAU. He is the founder and former director of the Cybersecurity and Assured Systems Engineering (CyBASE) Center at ERAU (2015-2019). Dr. Seker has conducted research in Aviation and Aerospace Cybersecurity, Networked Wings (NeW), and Security and Safety-Critical Systems. He has led projects in cyber safety of aircraft connectivity; cybersecurity assessment of various safety and mission critical systems; unmanned autonomous systems as a service; virtualization of mission-critical services, and ADS-B security issues and potential solutions. Dr. Seker’s research has been sponsored by the industry, Air Force Research Labs, FAA, NSA, NSF and the VA. Dr. Seker has served on various national and international standards committees and workgroups, including the FAA ADS-B Working Group, RTCA Special Committee 216 (DO-326A and DO-355/ED 204), Aircraft Industries Association’s Civil Aviation Cybersecurity Subcommittee and the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Trust Framework Study Group. Prior to joining ERAU, Dr. Seker was the Department Chair of the Computer Science Department at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.