Dear campus community,
I am delighted to announce the appointment of Vice Chancellor Paul Alivisatos as Berkeley’s next Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost (EVCP), effective immediately. He will continue his duties as Vice Chancellor for Research (VCR) until an interim replacement is appointed.
As EVCP, Paul will be working in close partnership with me, and will play a critical role in developing and implementing my vision and priorities for the Berkeley campus. Paul fully shares my commitment to improving students’ educational experience so that they can truly thrive at Berkeley; to creating a real sense of community and belonging on our campus; and to preserving our academic excellence, in the lab and the classroom, even as we continue with the hard work of bringing our budget into balance. As the chief academic officer for the campus, he has responsibility for the planning, development, implementation, assessment, and improvement of all academic programs, policies, and supporting infrastructure. The EVCP will act on my behalf whenever I am away from campus.
Paul is the Samsung Distinguished Professor of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, the founding Director of the Kavli Energy Nanoscience Institute, and Director Emeritus of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), where he remains a senior faculty scientist. He also holds professorships in Berkeley’s departments of chemistry and materials science. In addition, Paul is a founder of two prominent nanotechnology companies, Nanosys and Quantum Dot Corp, now a part of Thermo Fisher. He is also the founding editor of Nano Letters, a publication of the American Chemical Society, and formerly served on the senior editorial board of Science magazine, a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
After a successful tenure as Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Paul was appointed to the role of Vice Chancellor for Research in March 2016. In this position, Paul began a review of Berkeley’s research units, institutes, and centers; fostered new faculty connections for interdisciplinary research through the creation of Berkeley Collaborative Research Opportunities; oversaw the search for the new Dean of Data Sciences; and, in collaboration with the Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education, sponsored a series of fora aimed at assessing and strengthening current opportunities for undergraduate research. Importantly, he is also currently presiding over an end-to-end review of research funding systems and processes on the Berkeley campus.
Paul received his Bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1981 from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. in chemistry from Berkeley in 1986. He joined the campus as a faculty member in 1988. Paul has been recognized for his accomplishments with more than 25 awards including the National Medal of Science, the E.O. Lawrence Award, the Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the Dan David Prize, the Von Hippel Award, the Linus Pauling Medal, the Eni Award for Energy and Environment, and the National Academy of Science Award in Chemical Sciences. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.
Paul was recommended by the search committee for his demonstrated abilities in strategic planning, organization, and leadership. His academic credentials, impressive skill set, and deep administrative experience make him a perfect fit for this most important of positions. I want to thank the search committee for their hard work; the candidate pool for this search was especially deep, making their task even tougher.
Please join me in welcoming Paul Alivisatos as EVCP. I look forward to establishing an even stronger partnership with Paul in our respective new roles, and to working together with the entire campus community on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
Sincerely,
Carol Christ
Chancellor