Schlissel, currently serving as provost of Brown University, will succeed Mary Sue Coleman July 1, 2014. Coleman is retiring after 12 years leading U-M.
"This is an exciting time for the University of Michigan,” said Andrea Fischer Newman, chair of the University of Michigan Board of Regents. “Mark Schlissel brings an exceptional portfolio of scholarship and leadership, and just as importantly a tremendous commitment to Michigan's public ethos. I am confident Mark will lead the university into its next century focused on our deepest ideals of world-class academic excellence and public impact."
Schlissel, age 56, is a nationally recognized biomedical researcher who has risen through the ranks of academic and administrative positions in higher education. Before being named provost at Brown in 2011, Schlissel was University of California at Berkeley’s Dean of Biological Sciences in the College of Letters & Science and held the C.H. Li Chair in Biochemistry.
“It is a tremendous honor to be entrusted with the presidency of one of the nation’s great public universities,” Schlissel said following the vote by the regents. “I will bring to Michigan a fierce commitment to the importance of public research universities, a strong and personal belief in the ability of education to transform lives, and the understanding that excellence and diversity are inextricably linked.”
