UC President-Designate No Stranger to Hard Work

Physicist Robert C. Dynes, a first-generation college graduate who rose to be a distinguished scientist and chancellor of UC San Diego, will become president of the 10-campus UC system on Oct. 2. He succeeds Richard C. Atkinson, who is retiring after eight years as president.

Dynes, who joined UCSD as professor of physics in 1991 after a two-decade career in the private sector and was named chancellor in 1996, will be the University's 18th president. UC enrolls more than 200,000 students and employs more than 160,000 faculty and staff.

"Bob Dynes is an outstanding individual who will provide superb leadership to maintain the quality and accessibility of the University of California," said John J. Moores, chairman of the Board of Regents.

"These are very challenging times for our University," said Chancellor Henry T. Yang, "and Bob's combination of scholarship, experience, leadership, and wisdom will serve him extremely well in this position."

The Regents approved a salary of $395,000 per year for the new president. That is 18 percent less than the $465,872 average presidential salary of the public and private universities that UC uses for salary comparisons.

"I am elated by the prospect of taking the helm of the premier university in the world, a place where the very best come to study, to work, and to learn," Dynes, 60, told the Regents last month. "Sustaining the quality of the UC system will be my priority and my privilege as president.

"I am a first-generation college graduate whose life was transformed by educational opportunity," the Canadian-born Dynes said. "As an immigrant, I came to America because of my belief that anything is possible in this country if you work hard and apply yourself. As a physicist, I have a passion for discovering new ideas, and an even greater passion for watching my students discover new ideas. Last but not least, I am a Californian, and I am as dazzled by this radiant and richly diverse state now as I was when I arrived 12 years ago."

A self-described "lower middle-class kid who almost chose an ice hockey career over college," Dynes grew up in London, Ontario, and is a naturalized United States citizen. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics from the University of Western Ontario, and master's and doctorate degrees in physics from McMaster University. At AT&T Bell Laboratories, Dynes served as department head of semiconductor and material physics research and director of chemical physics research.

He is married to Frances Dynes Hellman, an expert on magnetic and superconducting materials who is a professor of physics at UC San Diego. President-designate Dynes has one daughter from a previous marriage and two grandchildren.

During Dynes' time as UCSD chancellor, student enrollments grew 25 percent and graduation rates remained high; new schools of pharmacy and management were established as was a new undergraduate college; outreach programs to public schools were expanded; research expenditures increased 36 percent; an initiative to improve staff retention and support was launched; and a $1 billion fundraising campaign began, of which nearly half has been raised.

Dynes told the Regents that he is eager to lead the UC system as it confronts the twin pressures of rising enrollments and falling state resources. "These same pressures are being felt by other universities in other states," he said. "There is a national consensus that American public universities must redefine how they deliver quality higher education. And the rest of the country is looking to the University of California to lead the way."

UC President-designate Robert Dynes is flanked by his wife, physicist Frances Dynes Hellman.