Industry Liaison Officer

The University of Kansas is seeking an Industry Liaison Officer to enhance engagement with the EARTH research consortium. The role involves collaboration with external stakeholders in the HVACR sector to promote the Center's initiatives and drive membership. Ideal candidates should possess strong communication skills and a commitment to fostering partnerships between academia and industry for climate-responsive technologies. This is a full-time position based in Kansas City, KS.
The Industry Liaison Officer (ILO) will support the strategic engagement and expansion of the EARTH research consortium. The ILO will serve as the primary conduit for external stakeholders—including industry representatives, professional organizations, and other HVACR-affiliated entities—seeking to engage with the EARTH Engineering Research Center. In this role, the ILO will work closely with the Research Project Manager, the Innovation Officer, and the Director of Education, to promote the Center’s value proposition, enhance external visibility, drive consortium membership, and ensure active sustained member participation in EARTH programs and activities.

An ideal candidate for this position is someone with strong communication and relationship-building skills, and a desire to promote meaningful collaboration between academia and the private sector in support of climate-responsive technologies and engineering workforce development.

About the EARTH Engineering Research Center
Heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and refrigeration (HVACR) are essential to modern quality of life yet remain significant contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions, due to widespread use of high-global-warming-potential (GWP) hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants. The Environmentally Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub (EARTH) is a multi-institutional, National Science Foundation-funded Engineering Research Center (NSF - ERC) developing a sustainable refrigerant lifecycle and catalyzing transformation across the HVACR sector through convergent research, industry-aligned workforce development, and a robust innovation ecosystem.

EARTH includes the University of Kansas as lead institution, five other academic partners: University of Notre Dame, University of Maryland, University of South Dakota, Lehigh University, and the University of Hawaiʻi—and more than 60 other industry, government, and academic collaborators and external stakeholders.

About the Company:
University of Kansas