distinguished himself as an outstanding scholar and teacher. Additionally, Denis’ role as a catalyst for interdisciplinary research and collaboration at the university has proven extremely effective, both in terms of the research he conducts and the support he has attracted over the years. I am confident that his current research into the physical basis for cell adhesion and de-adhesion will prove critical to our understanding of the metastasis of cancer and enable important breakthroughs in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer in the years to come."In February 2014, Wirtz was named the vice provost for research at Johns Hopkins . In announcing the Wirtz's appointment, Provost Robert C. Lieberman stated, "As is obvious to all who know him, Denis is an extremely productive and accomplished faculty member and a wonderful colleague. Those traits will serve both Denis and the university as he works with me to support important multidisciplinary research projects, including the strategic initiatives identified in the campaign, the Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships, and multidivisional proposals in response to RFAs (requests for applications)." Vice provost In his role as vice provost for research, Wirtz has recruited nearly two dozen faculty to join Johns Hopkins University as Bloomberg Distinguished Professors, managed the inaugural year of the Catalyst and Discovery Awards, and the first two President's Frontier Awards. He has expanded the university's research development efforts, creating a weekly digest of limited submission opportunities, a list of more than 175 funding opportunities for postdoctoral researchers, a list of more than 330 funding opportunities for early career faculty, and consolidated monthly digests of internal funding opportunities at the institution. He also consolidated multiple research administration offices into a central research administration team, Johns Hopkins University Research Administration. As director of the university's Signature Initiatives, he has overseen the launch of two new signature initiatives on big data, led by Alex Szalay, and space studies, Space@Hopkins, led by Charles L. Bennett. These are in addition to Kathryn Edin’s 21st Century Cities Initiative, Barbara Landau’s Science of Learning Institute, Scott Zeger’s Individualized Health Initiative, and David Peters’ Global Health Signature Initiative. Wirtz also directs the Johns Hopkins Physical Sciences-Oncology Center (PSOC), which is part of a network of twelve centers in the United States funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute to link the physical sciences with the study of cancer. When the center was established with a $14.8M grant in 2009,