Paul Alivisatos named as next University of Chicago president

The University of Chicago named Paul Alivisatos, a pioneering chemist, Chicago alumnus and current provost at the University of California, Berkeley, its new president.

Professor Alivisatos, a Chicago native of Greek descent, will succeed Robert Zimmer, who has been battling a brain tumour and will step aside in September after 15 years.

He is taking the presidency at a difficult moment for higher education in general and for Chicago in particular, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and the related economic downturn.

The institution had a $185 million (£130 million) deficit for the past fiscal year, while donations fell by nearly 25 per cent, its endowment shrank, and students have complained and sued over its $60,000 tuition fees during online delivery.

The university alluded to those challenges in its statement announcing his appointment, crediting Professor Alivisatos with pulling in more than $450 million in donations since 2016 at Berkeley.

Professor Zimmer also is expected to help, as he’ll move into a newly created position of chancellor, with a particular focus on fundraising.

In the announcement, Professor Alivisatos described his honour at being chosen to lead a “special place that was so transformative in my early education and guided me throughout my academic career”.

The university credited him, during his time as provost at Berkeley, with pushing efforts to increase diversity among students, faculty and leadership, and with leading on matters of free speech and social justice.

Professor Alivisatos earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry at Chicago and his doctorate at Berkeley. He will become only the second alumnus in Chicago’s 131-year history to serve as president.

In his scientific career, he led the development of the microscopic semiconductor particles known as quantum dots that are now used in a variety of electronic devices. His accomplishments include more than 50 patents and the founding of two companies.

At Berkeley, his positions included directing the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he gave the nuclear research facility new programmes in biosciences, renewable energy and entrepreneurship. Chicago brings with it the operation of the Argonne National Laboratory.

Professor Alivisatos also noted in the brief announcement statement his plans for “partnering with members of our campus and South Side communities, who are so integral to the university’s role as a great research university in one of the world’s greatest cities”.

Professor Alivisatos was born in Chicago in 1959. He has spoken in the past of the personal adjustments he was forced to make in 1970 when his mother died and he was sent to live with family in Greece.

He has been at Berkeley almost non-stop since his doctoral work in the 1980s. When he became provost there in 2017, Professor Alivisatos recalled for the Berkeley student newspaper, The Daily Californian, his years of being unsuccessfully wooed by other institutions.

“He bleeds Berkeley, is that it?” Charles Lieber, the Harvard University chemistry professor, told the paper in explaining Harvard’s failure to lure Professor Alivisatos away.

paul.basken@timeshighereducation.com