Statesman Names Three Frontrunners for UT President

By Rose Cahalan in 40 Acres on February 20, 2015 at 1:22 pm | No Comments

If the Austin American-Statesman’s anonymous sources are correct, there are three frontrunners for the job of UT-Austin president: Greg Fenves, Andrew Hamilton, and David Daniel.

Statesman education reporter Ralph Haurwitz published those names Thursday evening. Ohio State University executive vice president and provost Joseph Steinmetz had also been included on the shortlist, but he told reporters Thursday that he had withdrawn his name from consideration.

Fenves, who serves as executive vice president and provost of UT-Austin, is the only internal candidate. He started his career as a civil engineering professor at UT before spending 20-plus years at UC-Berkeley’s civil and environmental engineering department. He is a structural engineer with a research focus on earthquake engineering.

Hamilton is vice chancellor of the University of Oxford in England. His research background is in organic and biological chemistry, and his academic career includes appointments at Princeton University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Yale University, in addition to Oxford.

Daniel, BS ’72, MS ’75, PhD ’80, Life Member, is president of UT-Dallas. Like Fenves, he holds three degrees in civil engineering. The only UT alumnus in the group, he was previously the dean of engineering at the University of Illinois.

UT System spokeswoman Jenny LaCoste-Caputo declined to comment on the identities of any candidates. LaCoste-Caputo confirmed that the Board of Regents is still on track to announce UT’s next president in March, as originally planned. “The board meets March 4, and we’re not sure if they’ll name a finalist or finalists at that meeting or not,” she said. While the regents have the option of announcing multiple finalists, traditionally they only choose one.

Photo by Enrique Jiménez