Kenneth H. Wong, PhD
Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of the School of Graduate Studies
Kenneth Wong became vice provost for graduate education and dean of the University of Maryland Graduate School in August 2023 after a national search. In this role, Wong reports to the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s (UMB) provost and serves as the principal academic and administrative officer of the Graduate School, leading faculty and staff who are committed to providing UMB graduate students with an exceptional educational experience.
Wong also serves on the provost’s Leadership Council, works cooperatively with partners across UMB and the geographic region to strengthen graduate and professional education, and is a catalyst for the development and launch of self-sustaining programs that are in alignment with the University’s strategic goals.
Wong joined UMB after serving 11 years — nine as associate dean and two as senior associate dean — of the Virginia Tech Graduate School for the National Capital Region and director of the Northern Virginia Center (NVC) in Falls Church, Va., which was founded as a shared facility with the University of Virginia.
In his Virginia Tech role, Wong supported a wide range of graduate degree and certificate programs tailored to the Washington, D.C., region’s economic and professional development needs. Under his leadership, his team successfully launched affinity groups that foster small peer mentoring communities and play a vital role in advising the Graduate School leadership on the needs of a diverse student body.
Additionally, as director of NVC, Wong was responsible for overseeing the infrastructure and operations of the building, which is the home of several academic departments, research labs, a library/makerspace, and more than 30 classrooms.
In 2016, he was instrumental in creating the Qualcomm Thinkabit Lab, which combines career exploration and instruction in electronics, coding, engineering, and artistic design. The curriculum is primarily aimed at middle school students, but the lab is open to all ages and hosts more than 4,000 unique visitors each year.
As a research professor in the Department of Physics at Virginia Tech, Wong studied medical imaging, radiation therapy, image-guided interventions, and applications of machine learning in these fields. He also worked extensively in the field of combat casualty care, developing smartphone and communications systems for delivering medical aid to the point of injury and along the evacuation chain.
Wong holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Brandeis University and a PhD in bioengineering from the University of California, San Francisco and the University of California, Berkeley. His postdoctoral training was in the radiology department at Georgetown University.