Nettie La Belle-Hamer was named UAF’s vice chancellor for research in January 2022, following her interim service in the position since May 2020. The vice chancellor's role is to build capacity and depth in UAF's research and development efforts.

In becoming vice chancellor, La Belle-Hamer will step down as director of UAF's Alaska Satellite Facility, a position she has held since 2002. Under her leadership, the satellite facility grew into a highly successful program providing remote-sensing data access. 

La Belle-Hamer served as the UAF Geophysical Institute's deputy director from 2015-2020 and the UAF associate vice chancellor for research from 2011-2015. She managed the ASF Science Center from 2000-2002 and was employed by a private company working with ASF in the 1990s.

A lifelong Alaskan, La Belle-Hamer received her bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1985 and her master’s degree in space physics at UAF in 1988. She worked as a Geophysical Institute research assistant from 1987 until 1994, the year she earned her Ph.D. in space physics from UAF.