Paul Alivisatos, AB’81, is the 14th president of the University of Chicago, a role he has held since 2021, and the John D. MacArthur Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Chemistry, the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, and the College.
The origins of Alivisatos’s passion for rigorous inquiry and scientific innovation stem from his time in the College. “As an undergraduate student, I was enraptured by the Core curriculum, a set of classes across all disciplines,” he has reflected in a narrative piece submitted upon his acceptance of the Kavli Prize. Eventually, the Core curriculum led him to the field that would shape his life’s work. “I was looking for something I could draw inspiration from, something that would seem exciting and beautiful. I was so lucky when this came to me, in of all places, a particular laboratory experiment in my third-year physical chemistry class.”
He is only the second University of Chicago graduate to lead the institution as its president, following Edward Levi, LAB’28, PhB’32, JD’35, who served in the office from 1968 to 1971.
As a graduate student and later a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Alivisatos conducted pioneering research in the field of nanoscience. His work on nanocrystals—clusters of atoms arranged in a regular, orderly pattern—has made an impact in both industry and academia. Among other achievements, Alivisatos and his collaborators developed methods to synthesize semiconductor nanocrystals, also called quantum dots, to specific sizes and shapes for applications including biological imaging, renewable energy, and ultraefficient LED displays.
Alongside his research, Alivisatos served as UC Berkeley’s executive vice chancellor and provost and as director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory before becoming UChicago’s president. He is a founder of two nanotechnology companies, Nanosys and Quantum Dot Corporation, now part of Thermo Fisher Scientific. He is also the founding editor of Nano Letters, a publication of the American Chemical Society, and formerly served on the senior editorial board of Science magazine, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Alivisatos has received honors including the Linus Pauling Award, the Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the Priestley Medal, and the National Medal of Science. Most recently, he was awarded the 2024 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience and the Enrico Fermi Presidential Award. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.
Among his achievements as president, Alivisatos has cemented UChicago as an intellectual hub in quantum computing by ushering in a range of government and industry partnerships and establishing interdisciplinary programs across campus. Faculty excellence has also been a key priority, with historic gifts from the Wallman and Mansueto families being directed toward elevating professors and their research. The University’s commitment to free inquiry and expression has been deepened during his tenure with the opening of the Chicago Forum, a home for rigorously contesting ideas. Also under his presidency, the College is on a path toward expanded enrollment; UChicago introduced the innovative 4+1 programs; and the University welcomed the unified Division of the Arts & Humanities. In 2025 the Board of Trustees extended Alivisatos’s term as president of the University of Chicago through 2030.