Robert J. Zimmer

Robert J. Zimmer is "the 13th President of the University of Chicago. Zimmer, who has been serving as provost of Brown University, was nominated by the Presidential Search Committee earlier this week. [2006]...

"Zimmer, 58, will succeed Don Michael Randel, who has served as President of the University since 2000. Randel will become President of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation this summer.

"Zimmer is a mathematician who was a faculty member at the University of Chicago for more than two decades before leaving in 2002 to become Brown’s provost...

"A specialist in geometry, particularly ergodic theory, Lie groups, and differential geometry, Zimmer is the author of two books, Ergodic Theory and Semisimple Groups (1984) and Essential Results of Functional Analysis (1990), and more than 80 mathematical research articles. The recipient of an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, he served on the Board of Mathematical Sciences of the National Research Council from 1992 to 1995, and was on the executive committee from 1993 to 1995. Zimmer held the title of Max Mason Distinguished Service Professor in Mathematics at Chicago before leaving for Brown, where he has been the Ford Foundation Professor of Mathematics in addition to being provost.

"He earned his A.B., summa cum laude, from Brandeis University in 1968 and a Ph.D. in mathematics in 1975 from Harvard University. He joined the Chicago faculty as an L.E. Dickson Instructor of Mathematics in 1977. He was also on the faculty at the U.S. Naval Academy from 1975 to 1977, and at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1981 to 1983. He has held visiting positions at Harvard University and at institutions in Israel, France, Australia, Switzerland, and Italy.

"Zimmer will return to Chicago with his wife Terese S. Zimmer, and their youngest son Alex."


 * Director, Chicago Council on Global Affairs