Ron Fricker is the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and a Professor of Statistics. He is internationally recognized in the use of statistics and data science in national security applications as well as quality improvement methods and survey-based research. Dr. Fricker joined Virginia Tech as Head of the Department of Statistics in 2015 and served as the Interim Dean of the College of Science from 2021-22. Previously, he was a Professor of Operations Research at the Naval Postgraduate School and, prior to that, a Senior Statistician at the RAND Corporation and the Associate Director of the RAND National Security Research Division.

A recipient of multiple teaching awards and author of more than 100 papers, monographs, and technical reports, Dr. Fricker is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, a Fellow of the Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Leaders Network, and an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute. In 2022 he was elected to the Virginia Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, and he serves on the Board of Mathematical Sciences and Analytics of The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.