Dr. Christopher J. Cramer is UL Research Institutes’ interim president and chief research officer, overseeing a broad portfolio of projects that share a focus on fundamental and applied safety science. His guidance enhances the breadth and impact of the organization’s capabilities as a world-class safety science research institution.

An accomplished academic leader as well as a dedicated educator, Cramer previously managed one of the largest public research programs in the United States as vice president for research at the University of Minnesota. He first joined the University of Minnesota in 1992 as a chemistry department faculty member following four years of service as an officer in the U.S. Army, which included combat duty in Operation Desert Storm.

Cramer earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. With research interests ranging from modeling catalysis and environmental contaminant remediation systems to solar technology development, Cramer has contributed to more than 500 peer-reviewed publications and authored the textbook “Essentials of Computational Chemistry, Theories and Models.” He has held various leadership roles with the American Chemical Society (ACS) and is a recipient of the ACS’ 2021 Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award.

Cramer currently serves as a member of the National Science Foundation’s Engineering Research Visioning Alliance (ERVA) advisory board, which helps discern and develop transformative new engineering research directions. He also serves on the International Electrotechnical Commission Market Strategy Board to help identify the technological challenges of the future and on the board of directors for Bioindustrial Manufacturing and Design Ecosystem (BioMADE), an innovation institute that is part of the Manufacturing USA network.