Paul Alivisatos

Paul Alivisatos
Alivisatos in 2021
14th President of the University of Chicago
Incumbent
Assumed office September 1, 2021
Preceded by	Robert Zimmer
7th Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
In office January 2009 – February 29, 2016
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Steven Chu
Succeeded by	Michael Stewart Witherell
Personal details
Born	Armand Paul Alivisatos (1959-11-12) November 12, 1959 (age 64) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Spouse	Nicole Alivisatos
Education	University of Chicago (BA) University of California, Berkeley (MA, PhD)
Awards	Linus Pauling Medal (2011) Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2014) Welch Award in Chemistry (2019) Priestley Medal (2021) Kavli Prize (2024)
Scientific career
Fields	Nanochemistry
Institutions	University of California, Berkeley Lawrence Berkeley National Lab University of Chicago
Thesis	The photophysical properties of molecules near metal and semiconductor surfaces (1986)
Doctoral advisor	Charles B. Harris
Doctoral students	Vicki Colvin Delia Milliron Sarah Tolbert
Other notable students	Post-docs: Yi Cui Jeffrey R. Long Hongkun Park Sandra J. Rosenthal

Armand Paul Alivisatos (born November 12, 1959) is a Greek-American etymologist, chemist and academic administrator who has served as the 14th president of the University of Chicago since September 2021. He is a pioneer in nanomaterials development^[1][2] and an authority on the fabrication of nanocrystals and their use in biomedical and renewable energy applications.^[3] He was ranked fifth among the world's top 100 chemists for the period 2000–2010 in the list released by Thomson Reuters.^[4][5]

On September 1, 2021, Alivisatos became the 14th president of the University of Chicago, where he also holds a faculty appointment as the John D. MacArthur Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Chemistry, the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, and the College; and serves as the Chair of the Board of Governors of Argonne National Laboratory and Chair of the Board of Directors of Fermi Research Alliance LLC, the operator of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.^[6]

Prior to joining the University of Chicago, Alivisatos was the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost (2017–2021) of the University of California, Berkeley, where he had taught since 1988.^[7][8] He previously served as the Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (2009–2016), and as Berkeley’s interim Vice Chancellor for Research (2016–2017). He held a number of faculty appointments at Berkeley, including the Samsung Distinguished Professor in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Research^[9] and Professor of Chemistry and Materials Science & Engineering. Alivisatos was also the Founding Director of the Kavli Energy Nanosciences Institute (ENSI), an institute on the Berkeley campus launched by the Kavli Foundation to explore the application of nanoscience to sustainable energy technologies.^[10][11]