UC president Robert
Dynes introduced UCSD’s
new chancellor at a press conference on April 12. Chosen from
over 300 candidates, Marye Anne Fox is UCSD’s seventh chancellor
and the seventh woman to helm a UC school. A professor of organic
chemistry, Fox, 56, comes here from North Carolina State University— the
largest of the 16 University of North Carolina campuses with
29,000 students and 1,685 faculty. She had been chancellor there
since 1998 and had previously spent 22 years at the University
of Texas finally serving as vice president of research.
UCSD’s new chancellor has long been interested in the linkage
between scientific research and its development beyond the lab.
She was instrumental in the creation of Centennial Campus, a
1,334-acre site adjacent to North Carolina State’s main
campus. Described in its brochure as “a technopolis of
university, corporate and government R&D facilities and business
incubators,” Centennial Campus is intended as a place where
professors can turn their research into marketable products.
She has also shown that she is a skilled and successful fund-raiser,
having raised several hundred million dollars for North Carolina
State.
“It is my view that everything
she has done to this date has led her to UCSD,” Dynes said
at the April 12 press conference. “She has a complete passion
and devotion to students and the quality of their education. ...
She has a strong commitment to faculty excellence. She has enormous
energy, and she is well known for her national role on science policy.”
Fox responded by saying that she was “humbled in accepting
the enormous challenge of accelerating the momentum at UCSD.”
She will take up that challenge when she arrives on campus
in mid August. But why leave NC State for UCSD? She was asked
that
question in an April 5, 2004 interview with the NC State student
newspaper Technician.
“
It’s one of the best institutions in
the country,” She answered. “It’s a young vibrant
place. It is entrepreneurial. ...
It’s a top 10 institution.”
And what would she miss most at NC State? “I will miss
the students, I think, absolutely the most. ... The real reason
for any university is the students.” 
@UCSD magazine will run an interview with Chancellor Fox in
a future issue.
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