Paul Alivisatos is the 14th President of the University of Chicago and a pioneering chemist whose work has defined the modern field of nanoscience. A UChicago alumnus, he earned his A.B. in Chemistry in 1981 and his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. A former Director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost at UC Berkeley, he has made foundational contributions to semiconductor nanocrystals, quantum dots, and nanoscale materials for energy, imaging, and electronics. His inventions underpin advances in biomedicine and QLED displays, and he holds more than 50 patents. He also founded Nanosys, Inc. and Quantum Dot Corp (now part of Thermo Fisher). In 2022, he received the CME STEM Leadership Award for Advancing Global Scientific Innovation.

Alivisatos oversaw a significant development portfolio as provost. Annual giving to Berkeley exceeded $1 billion in 2020, with Alivisatos stewarding more than $450 million in gifts from 2016 to 2020. As director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from 2009 to 2016, Alivisatos guided the U.S. Department of Energy lab through a period of transformational change, creating new programs in biosciences, renewable energy and entrepreneurship. From 2016 to 2017, he served as Berkeley’s vice chancellor for research, fostering greater interdisciplinary faculty research and strengthening opportunities for undergraduate research.