Las Vegas City Wire

The new interim vice president for research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas took an unprecedented path to get to his current position.

According to a news release shared by the university, David Hatchett's career at UNLV began in 1999 as a chemistry assistant professor at UNLV, and he was soon on target for a bigger role in the school after completing a faculty leadership development program.

“After spending one summer picking boysenberries and seeing how hard my dad worked in construction, I realized I did not want to pursue these areas as a career,” Hatchett said in the release. “I enjoyed chemistry, and my high school physics teacher was a good friend of my father. He really pushed me after high school to pursue a degree and finally a Ph.D. The rest is history.”

He became acting vice president on Oct. 1.

His background includes graduating from California State University, Stanislaus with a bachelor of science. Hatchett said that the school was located between Foster Farms and Jenny O and was known by the locals as "Turkey Tech".   

Upon achieving his doctorate in physical/analytical chemistry from the University of Utah, Hatchett became a postdoctoral researcher on chemical sensors and conductive polymer/metal composites at Georgia Tech.

He also has taught graduate students in electrochemistry and sophisticated analytical chemistry techniques.

When not hard at work advocating on behalf of UNLV, Hatchett is hard at work in his laboratory where he has produced three patents with a fourth and fifth on the way.