Dennis Assanis, a scientist, engineer and the previous College of Delaware president, was named the brand new UC Santa Barbara chancellor on Thursday, ushering in a brand new period of management for a college that has grown in stature and selectivity underneath the three-decade tenure of former Chancellor Henry T. Yang.
The College of California regents cited Assanis’ success at increasing the analysis prowess in Delaware as among the many causes they chose him.
Throughout Assanis’s time on the College of Delaware, analysis expenditures grew to $466 million — a rise of $290 million from 2016 — with focuses on well being, life sciences and clear hydrogen.
Below his management, the college attracted new tenants and created initiatives at its 1.2-million sq. foot Science, Know-how and Superior Analysis campus. They included the Nationwide Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals, a public-private partnership which researches vaccines and prescribed drugs.
UC President Michael V. Drake mentioned he was “totally impressed’ with Assanis’ {qualifications}, “significantly his dedication to scholar success, his deal with tutorial excellence and his file of accomplishment in increasing enterprise analysis and innovation.”
Drake — who will step down from his place on the finish of the month — mentioned he coordinated with incoming UC President James B. Milliken to pick Assanis. Drake didn’t attend the assembly, and his remarks have been learn by a employees member.
Assanis, 58, who was born in Greece, will take over management of the Santa Barbara campus at difficult time for the UC system — underneath the stress of a hiring freeze, austerity measures, federal cuts to schooling and analysis funding and state funding deferrals. The ocean-view campus in expensive Santa Barbara County can be grappling with a scholar housing scarcity as state stress grows to extend enrollment.
Regents voted to approve Assanis’ annual wage at $880,000 — a $60,000 enhance over the pay of Yang, 84, who stepped down July 14 to return to instructing and analysis. Assanis begins within the function Sept. 1.
UC Regents Chair Janet Reilly mentioned in a press release that Assanis “dedication to tutorial excellence and his penchant for collaboration will steer a daring new period of progress and innovation, serving the campus and all of UC properly.”
Talking through video from Greece — the place he was on a household trip — Assanis mentioned changing into chancellor was a “profound privilege” and that he noticed greater schooling “not solely as a ladder of alternative however as a group of belonging, motivation and progress.”
He mentioned he would “work tirelessly” at “fostering a tradition of educational and analysis excellence, supporting scholar success and strengthening a daring dedication to entry and affordability.”
Assanis, who held the highest function on the College of Delaware for 9 years, was beforehand a senior vp for tutorial affairs at New York’s Stony Brook College and vp at Brookhaven Nationwide Laboratory Affairs.
He started his tutorial profession in 1985 as an engineering professor on the College of Illinois Urbana-Champaign earlier than shifting in 1995 to instructing, analysis and administrative positions on the College of Michigan.
Assanis will inherit a campus that that’s considerably bigger, extra prestigious and fewer provincial than it was when Yang — the longest-serving chancellor in UC historical past — arrived in 1994 from Purdue College.
Over Yang’s tenure, the campus turned extra selective and grew dramatically in college students enrolled and packages provided. At this time, the undergraduate acceptance charge is 32.9%, in comparison with roughly 70% within the mid-to-late Nineteen Nineties. About 23,000 undergraduates presently attend courses, in comparison with 15,525 in 1994.
