Western appoints AVP for innovation, partnerships

David Muir is the inaugural associate vice-president at Western in charge of innovation and strategic partnerships. Debora Van Brenk/Western Communications David Muir has spent decades matching innovation with industry in the private and public sectors. He has learned first-hand the power of collaboration. On Feb. Muir will bring his expertise back to Western - where he earned two degrees in chemistry - as the university's first-ever associate vice-president for innovation and strategic partnerships. In this role, he will provide leadership to existing WORLDiscoveries  and  Western Research Parks  teams, while helping connect research and industry, governments, community organizations and social enterprise to commercialize new ideas in a new strategic-partnership group. "The university has a mandate for teaching and research and translating that research into societal impact, whether it's research in the social sciences and humanities, or research in science and engineering and medicine," Muir, BSc'89, PhD'94, said.