C. L. Max Nikias became USC’s 11th president (2010-2018). He previously the held the Robert C. Packard President’s Chair and the Malcolm R. Currie Chair in Technology and the Humanities, and chaired the USC Hospitals Governing Board. He holds faculty appointments in both electrical engineering and the classics, and leads special freshman seminars each fall on ancient Athenian democracy and drama.

Nikias has been at USC since 1991, serving as a professor, director of national research centers, dean, provost and now president. During his 20-year career at the university, he has been credited with recruiting new academic leadership, strengthening the academic medical enterprise, solidifying the USC Viterbi School of Engineering as a top-tier school, attracting a series of major donations, creating innovative cross-disciplinary programs, enhancing globalization efforts and increasing support for students.

He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a charter fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The Chronicle of Higher Education has called Nikias a “prodigious fundraiser,” and The New York Times selected him as one of a small number of national figures “who make sports’ little corner of the world a better place.”