After a search that lasted nearly one year, UC Berkeley found
its next chancellor in Robert J. Birgeneau, an internationally
known physicist.
Birgeneau, who is the current president of the University of
Toronto, will start his new job in California in October.
His appointment to the position was made formal when University
of California President Robert Dynes made the announcement July 27.
The UC Board of Regents approved the appointment via
teleconference.
“˜”˜I genuinely believe that the University of
California, Berkeley, is simply the very best teaching and research
university in the world,” Birgeneau said after the
news of his hiring was announced.
Birgeneau, 62, was chosen from a group of nearly 300
candidates.
He will replace Robert Berdahl, who held the position of
Berkeley chancellor for the past eight years. In September, Berdahl
announced his decision to step down from the position and return to
teaching.
“Everything Bob Birgeneau has done has prepared him to be
chancellor at UC Berkeley,” Dynes said in a statement
released from his office.
Birgeneau is not a new face to either Dynes or Berdahl.
Birgeneau worked with Dynes from 1968 to 1975 at AT&T Bell
Laboratories.
The two Berkeley chancellors are also connected through
Berdahl’s daughter and son-in-law, both of whom are faculty members
at the University of Toronto.
“He brings a real commitment to equality and
inclusion,” said Brad Hayward, a spokesman for the UC office
of the president.
Issues of diversity have been one of the major obstacles the
university has been facing in recent years after the use of
affirmative action was banned in California state and local
government entities. Birgeneau acknowledged this issue and voiced
his concern about the current state of admissions.
“˜”˜We will not “¦ meet our social
responsibilities as a public institution unless we serve the entire
public,” he said. “˜”˜It’s wrong if we
serve only part of the public.”
Other than Birgeneau’s appointment, the regents also
approved the new chancellor’s salary on Tuesday.
Birgeneau’s salary will be the highest in the UC system.
He will make $390,000 a year, an increase from his predecessor,
whose base salary was $315,000.
This figure was approved by a vote of 11-1 by the board, with
one abstention.
Aside from his position at the University of Toronto, Birgeneau
spent 25 years on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
His career at MIT began as a professor of physics in 1975, where
he later became the head of the department and the dean of the
School of Sciences.
With reports from Bruin wire services.