Mung Chiang B.S. ’99 M.S. ’00 Ph.D. ’03 will assume the presidency at Northwestern on July 1.
Chiang, the current president of Purdue University, will replace interim president Henry Binsen (Binsen, a former president, also held the role from 1995 to 2009). Binsen assumed the role for a second time after former president Michael Schill stepped down in September, following federal government scrutiny over his response to pro-Palestinian campus encampments.
In a statement in “Northwestern Now,” the university’s news site, Northwestern described Mung as “a renowned researcher, educator, national science advisor and higher education leader.”
Previously, Chiang served as Purdue’s Dean of Engineering in 2017, making him the youngest-ever leader of a major American college. As president, Chiang expanded Purdue’s research to encompass more $1 billion in expenditures, froze tuition for three straight years and created partnerships with major technology industries.
He is also the recipient of the National Science Foundation’s Alan T. Waterman Award, Guggenheim Fellowship and several awards from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
At Stanford, Chiang studied electrical engineering and mathematics during his undergraduate career, before focusing on electrical engineering in graduate school. Chiang conducted his Ph.D. under Professors Thomas M. Cover Ph.D. ’64 and Stephen Boyd, and published his thesis, titled “Solving nonlinear problems in communication systems using geometric programming and dualities.” While at Stanford, he also published on topics of channel capacity and data compression.
In an email to the Daily, Chiang declined to comment until he has more time in the role.
Trevor Peters, a spokesperson for Purdue, referred the Daily to a statement released by Purdue’s newsroom. “It has been an incredible honor and joy for me to work with the amazing board, colleagues, students and alumni here,” Chiang said in the statement. “There truly is something special at Purdue: not just the projects and programs, but also the people, who time after time set the standard for excellence at scale.”’
In his new role at Northwestern, Chiang has said that he hopes to focus on learning, describing himself as “an incoming freshman.”
“I’ll be learning a lot about the unique tradition, people and culture of this place,” said Chiang, in an interview with The Daily Northwestern. “I don’t know enough about this place, but I know that the color purple [Northwestern’s brand color] is truly creative, collaborative — whimsical even — and it’s going to be an amazing, amazing color.”