Dr. Kody Varahramyan joined the University of Maine in July 2017 as the Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School. He has been responsible for supporting and guiding UMaine’s advancement as a world-class research university, with nationally and internationally recognized research and graduate programs of global impact and local relevance. These efforts have resulted in the highest levels of growth and development ever achieved in research and graduate studies at the university, including all-time high records realized in research funding and graduate enrollment since fiscal year 2020. As part of this, he led the efforts that in January 2022 resulted in the R1 designation of the University of Maine by the Carnegie Classification, and elevated the national profile of the university by joining the ranks of the top 3.7% universities in the nation (i.e. 146 R1 institutions out of 3,982 post-secondary degree-granting institutions), as well as the ranks of the top 1.4% of universities in the nation with no medical schools (i.e. 55 R1 institutions out of 3,790 institutions).

At the University of Maine he articulated a new vision for a modern 21st Century research university and led the realization of major strategic programs and initiatives supportive of the new vision and in diverse areas of strategic importance to the university, including the UMaine Arts Initiative, the UMaine Artificial Intelligence Initiative, the UMaine Arctic Initiative, the UMaine FOREST Initiative, the UMaine MARINE Initiative, the UMaine Space Initiative, and the UMaine Medicine Initiative, which has become the UMaine Institute of Medicine.

He also envisioned and led the realization of the University of Maine Portland Gateway, serving as the gateway to the University of Maine research, education, and outreach resources, programs, and services, by acting as the front door for the university engagement in Portland and beyond, through comprehensively serving the education and business needs, preparing the knowledge-and-innovation workforce, and being a major contributor to societal advancement and economic development.