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

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 60 research papers, a monograph and a proceedings volume. He has held visiting positions at MIT, in France at the University of Metz, University of Nancy, University of Savoie, University Jean-Monnet-Saint-Étienne, University of Rouen and University of Sorbonne Paris Nord, in Italy at the University of Rome La Sapienza Rome, and in Romania at the Institute of Mathematics of the Romanian Academy.

He was appointed to the position of vice provost for research in 2016, and vice president for research and innovation in 2024, with the goal of enhancing faculty research efforts and increasing support for research at WPI from state and federal government agencies, and corporations, and supporting WPI's innovation ecosystem. His responsibilities include supervising the operation and non-financial support of WPI’s research enterprise, including oversight of university-wide research institutes and centers, the offices that administer research sponsorship and compliance and intellectual property and innovation and WPI's shared research facilities. In 2025 WPI has been designated, for the first time, as an R1 institution by American Council on Education (ACE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Between 1997 and 2003 he was the founding Director of the Center for Industrial Mathematics and statistics at WPI, an academic/industry consortium that brought students and faculty to work on mathematics and statistics problems from corporate sponsors. 

In 2007, with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, in he co-founded and became the founding President of the National Professional STEM Master's Association (NPSMA) and served for six years on its Board of Directors. 

He has been serving since 2018 as member of the Board of Directors of Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, the quasi state agency that supports business formation and growth in the state’s technology sector, helping Massachusetts lead in the global digital economy. He is currently the Vice Co-Chair of the Board.

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 in 1997, and subsequently served as department head from 2003 to 2013.

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.