Ramy Rahimi
Ramy Rahimi is the new vice president for research and development at the University of New Hampshire.
Rahimi comes on board at the Durhambased campus as an important new link between the university’s land, sea and space research work and the state’s advanced technology manufacturing industry.
He arrives via NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia, where he most recently was senior advisor for research and innovation.
His role in the newly created position of vice president for research and development will be put to quick use as UNH hosts the inaugural Northeast Space, Technology, Trade, and Research (STTAR) Expo Oct. 28 and 29.
“This feels like home. This feels like I’m ready to run before I can walk,” said Rahimi, noting that he left his job at NASA on Friday, Sept. 25, and started his new job at UNH the following Monday.
For Rahimi, the expo is an opportunity to introduce himself to the manufacturers in New Hampshire and the region and pitch the university’s research.
“I know the federal labs need support.
I know other government agencies need support. I know industry needs support. I know other academic institutions need support. I would like to position UNH — and research and innovation at UNH — as the hub that attracts all of these industries, government, academia to support them,” he said. “When someone thinks of a challenging issue, UNH should come top of the list.”
For the organizer of the expo — the New Hampshire Aerospace and Defense Consortium (NHADC) — the event gives manufacturers in the region a first-time opportunity to interact and better compete against states such as Texas and California.
“If the Northeast gets together as one group — so we’re talking all of New England plus Pennsylvania and New York — suddenly we are a force to be reckoned with, and that represents currently nearly 40% of the entire defense industrial base,” said Randy Makee, NHADC’s executive director.
Space-related research at UNH, according to Makee, has been around for many years. In 1952, UNH set up early cosmic ray and radiation measurements atop Mount Washington.
When discussion started about a first-time expo that featured this region’s space-related capabilities, Makee said UNH was a natural to host.
“This is our tradition up here. Let’s be first, and let’s get this thing on the map, and let’s put it with a space focus, because this is such an enormous emerging sector of industry, of our economy,” said Makee. “And it’s huge in New Hampshire and has been thanks to the work at UNH since the 1950s.”
The coalition and the expo have the support of the New Hampshire Department of Business and Economic Affairs (BEA).
“With hundreds of businesses across the Granite State contributing to aerospace and defense, which drives a $7.5 billion footprint, this sector is a formidable economic engine,” BEA Commissioner Lucy Lange said.
Makee expects upward of 500 people at the expo. His organization has 154 members, 106 of them in New Hampshire.
“We serve as a trade organization to support manufacturing, and it’s no longer just in New Hampshire; it’s now throughout the Northeast,” Makee said. “The DOW (Department of War/Department of Defense) supply chain specifically for manufacturing, and the industry in this state represents a significant portion of the GDP.”
“We are the number one export category, and our job at NHADC, our responsibility is to drive as much revenue and create as much awareness about revenue opportunities as we can,” he added.
The organization represents a range of manufacturers that make the items that support military and aerospace hardware, from optics to mapping to sonar to sensors.
“Our people make the things that everyone sees out in the marketplace, all the really exciting, sexy, incredible stuff that our military does. But we are more at the component level,” he said.
Rahimi’s background represents a cross section of work that intersects with the work he’ll be doing at UNH.
He worked in sales at Apple, ran his own corporate branding and design agency, taught business communications, taught corporate strategy and innovation management, taught entrepreneurship and held various positions during his two years as NASA.
“Industry is driven by market and profit. Universities, especially public universities like UNH, and federal agencies like NASA, they’re driven by missions, and that’s kind of where the connection is,” Rahimi said. “I’m a product of public education, and most of my career has been in public institutions, in academia, and of course as a civil servant. I’m ready for it.”
In welcoming Rahimi to campus, UNH President Elizabeth Chilton noted his work at NASA to develop strategic research partnerships, connect researchers with complementary capabilities and resources, and help translate research and emerging technologies into opportunities for broader impact.
“Ramy understands and is passionate about the research enterprise, but what really distinguishes him is his experience taking research beyond the university or laboratory,” said Chilton. “The university has its greatest impact when research discoveries improve people’s lives, help industries grow, and solve problems across New Hampshire and beyond. We want UNH to be a place where our students have the opportunity to work alongside our faculty to create new knowledge, forge new partnerships, and spark innovation that reaches beyond the university. Ramy has spent his career building these types of connections.”
Just before leaving NASA, Rahimi worked to create the Aerospace Innovation District, an initiative to open over 325 acres of under-utilized land at Langley to private developers, academic institutions, and commercial aerospace partners.
“If we utilize the 300 acres to build an innovation district, supported by academic institutions, the regional ones through a consortium, we can bring academic institutions to the center, open up the centers for them, give them access to the facility, give them access to their expertise, and also bring in the companies that want to work with us, that were hungry to work with NASA and bring them in an incubator format,” he said.
He looks forward to working with what he sees as an entrepreneurial spirit in the state not only among its manufacturers and businesses but among its political leaders and educators as well.
“In order to achieve that dream of having positioned ourselves as a hub is connecting with the industry, positioning ourselves as partners to the industry, and opening the university and the research and innovation to them,” he said.
Rahimi’s position is new, a vice president’s job answering directly to the UNH president, which Chilton became in July 2024.
The new position replaces a provost level vice presidency, previously held by Marion McCord, who in June became senior vice president of research and knowledge enterprise at Merrimack College in Massachusetts.
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Ramy Rahimi is the new vice president for research and development at the University of New Hampshire.
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