Meet Our Leadership Team

NC State’s bold vision is as a global research leader that works across industry, academia and government to increase innovation and discovery and to deliver revolutionary, life-changing solutions. Our leaders work each day to empower, support and drive the research enterprise.

Vice Chancellor Krista Walton

Dr. Krista Walton is NC State’s sixth Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation. As Chief Research Officer (CRO), she oversees all research activities at NC State and is responsible for the university’s research vision. Under her leadership, units reporting to the Office of Research and Innovation centrally manage the research enterprise, including research administration, research development, large-scale interdisciplinary initiatives and the university’s intellectual properties. She also co-manages, along with the office of EAPED, our deep industry and government agency alliances on the university’s award-winning research campus. Researchers at NC State are supported by more than $500 million in sponsored programs from federal, local government, industry and nonprofit organizations. NC State’s research portfolio exceeds 5,000 invention disclosures, more than 2000 US patents, 1600 active commercialization agreements and more than 650 products to market. Centennial Campus hosts more than 70 corporate, government and non-profit partners working with the university’s 75+ centers and institutes, laboratories, and research departments.

“NC State researchers work every day to create practical intellectual advances with direct societal and economic impact. We are working to make sure our researchers have ways to leverage their expertise and work together to solve modern problems in our state, nation and world.” –

Vice Chancellor Krista Walton

Vice Chancellor Walton previously served as the Associate Vice President for Research Operations and Infrastructure at Georgia Tech, where she was also a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering. Dr. Walton’s prior leadership positions also include being the founding director and lead PI of Georgia Tech’s DOE Energy Frontier Research Center and associate dean for research in the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech. She served as secretary/treasurer of the International Adsorption Society and was the co-chair for the DOE Basic Energy Sciences Roundtable on Foundational Science for Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies (2022). She recently served as a member of the 2022-2024 cohort of DARPA’s prestigious Defense Science Study Group.

Dr. Walton holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Alabama-Huntsville and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Vanderbilt University. Her academic career has focused on building and sustaining an active research group focused on the design, synthesis and characterization of functional porous materials for use in adsorption applications. Walton has published over 140 peer-reviewed articles and co-founded three spin-off companies from her research.

Dr. Walton is a fellow in both the International Adsorption Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Over her career she has been the recipient of many awards, including the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Institute Award for Excellence in Industrial Gases Technology (2024), the Department of Energy Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award for Atomic, Molecular, and Chemical Sciences (2020), the inaugural International Adsorption Society Award for Excellence in Publications by a Young Member of the Society (2013), the Army Research Office Young Investigator Award (2007), and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2007).