Bogdan Vernescu is the Vice President and Vice Provost for Research and Innovation, and Professor of mathematical sciences. 

He was appointed to the position of Vice Provost for Research in 2016, and is responsible for enhancing faculty research efforts and increasing support for research at WPI from government agencies, corporations, and foundations. His responsibilities include supervising the operation and non-financial support of WPI’s research enterprise, including oversight of university-wide research institutes and centers, and the offices that administer research sponsorship, research integrity and compliance, technology innovation and entrepreneurship, and shared facilities.

He is member of the Executive Committee of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, member of the Board of Directors of the NDIA New England Chapter, chair of the Board of the Romanian-American Foundation, member of the Board of Directors of the Worcester Regional Research Bureau, and member of the Board of Directors of the ASSISTments Foundation.

Vernescu originally joined WPI in 1991 as a faculty member in the Mathematical Sciences department, where he co-founded the Center for Industrial Mathematics and Statistics (CIMS) in 1997, and was its founding Director, and subsequently served as department head from 2003 to 2013. He supported the development of professional science masters' programs at WPI and founded the National Professional Sciences Masters Association, and was its founding President.

His research is in applied mathematics for multiscale materials sciences, focusing on the characterization of material properties of composites, porous media, suspensions, emulsions and electrorheological/magnetorheological materials. He has published over 80 research papers, a monograph and a proceedings volume. He has held visiting positions at the University of Minnesota,  MIT, the University of Metz, University of Nancy, University of Chambery, University of Savoie, University of Rouen, University of Sorbonne Paris Nord, University of Rome La Sapienza Rome, and at the Institute of Mathematics of the Romanian Academy.

Before arriving at WPI, Vernescu was a researcher at the Institute of Mathematics of the Romanian Academy. He earned BS and MS degrees in applied mathematics from the University of Bucharest, and a PhD in mathematics from the Institute of Mathematics in Romania.