Subra Suresh to head Carnegie Mellon University

Subra Suresh, director of the National Science Foundation, a $7-billion independent government science agency charged with advancing all fields of fundamental science, engineering research and education, was on Tuesday named the new president of Carnegie Mellon University.

Suresh will succeed Jared L Cohon who is stepping down after 16 years. She will assume the new responsibility from July 1.

Suresh will be the ninth president in CMU’s 113-year history.

Subra Suresh, director of the National Science Foundation, a $7-billion independent government science agency charged with advancing all fields of fundamental science, engineering research and education, was on Tuesday named the new president of Carnegie Mellon University.

“I am truly honoured to have the opportunity to lead CarnegieMellonUniversity as its ninth president,” Suresh said in a statement responding to Carnegie Mellon’s announcement.

“The extraordinary ability of the CMU faculty and students in bringing together cutting-edge research and education across multiple disciplines positions CMU uniquely to address national and global challenges. I look forward to working with the CMU community to further our global impact,” he said.

The Chennai native was nominated in 2010 to be the NSF director by President Barack Obama; he was unanimously confirmed by the US Senate.

On Tuesday, President Obama said, “We have been very fortunate to have Sutra Suresh guiding the National Science Foundation for the last two years”.

“Subra has shown himself to be a consummate scientist and engineer -- beholden to evidence and committed to upholding the highest scientific standards. He has also done his part to make sure the American people benefit from advances in technology, and opened up more opportunities for women, minorities, and other underrepresented groups. I am grateful for his service,” Obama said in a statement.

Suresh had previously served as the dean of the School of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is currently on leave as the Vannevar Bush Professor of Engineering at MIT while serving as the director of NSF.

National Science Board Chairman Daniel Arvizu said that Suresh has provided extraordinary vision and leadership to position NSF to extract even greater benefits from the national investment in science than ever before.

‘His accomplishments are many, but noteworthy are his unprecedented engagement and collaboration with the international community and his interest to ensure that NSF-sponsored science results find their way more quickly into the marketplace,’ Arvizu said.

In a note to NSF staff distributed on Tuesday morning, Suresh said that it has been his extraordinary honour to lead the National Science Foundation, which, he said, is blessed with a ‘marvelous cohort of highly talented and devoted staff,’ as well as hundreds of thousands of innovative grantees and investigators from every field of science and engineering.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to serve the country in this capacity,” he said.