SUNY Board of Trustees Appoints Satish K. Tripathi President of University at Buffalo

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The State University of New York Board of Trustees today appointed Satish K. Tripathi as the 15th president of the University at Buffalo. Tripathi has served as UB's provost and executive vice president for academic affairs for the past six years.

Today's appointment is the result of a seven-month international search, during which the search committee considered nearly 70 highly qualified candidates who represented a wide range of academic disciplines and professional experiences. A video of today's press conference will be posted to the University at Buffalo YouTube channel.

A slideshow of his appointment is available here.

SUNY Board Chairman Carl T. Hayden said, "Dr. Tripathi has excelled as provost and executive vice president at the University at Buffalo, aiding in the development of its strategic plan and enhancing the university's academic and research portfolios. The board is most confident that he will prove an extraordinary leader for UB as its 15th president."

SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher said, "Major public research universities like UB engage in research that helps build vibrant communities at home and across the globe, and they require leadership of exceptional caliber. As a transformative leader with an international reputation for excellence, Dr. Tripathi will provide outstanding leadership for UB and the Western New York community."

Tripathi said he is "privileged and humbled by the opportunity to lead this remarkable university."

"Throughout the last decade, we have built steadily upon our university's tradition of excellence, and the strategic vision we have pursued together has done much to strengthen this foundation," he said. "Our promise is great, and I am confident that UB's national prominence can, and will, rise -- bringing our university within the upper echelon of public research universities. As UB grows in stature, quality and impact, so will our ability to fulfill our core mission. My definition of that mission is very ambitious, but it's also very simple. In essence, I believe everything we do as an academic community is about making the world a better place. I am eager to get to work together with our university, our community and our partners around the world to pursue that vision."

Jeremy M. Jacobs, UB Council and the UB search committee chairman, said Tripathi was a unanimous choice of the UB Council, selected from an outstanding pool of candidates in a very competitive search. "Dr. Tripathi is a gifted leader and accomplished researcher who possesses the ability and knowledge to guide UB to become one of the world's truly great research universities," Jacobs said. "This university and this community are very fortunate that Dr. Tripathi will lead UB as its 15th president."

As president of UB, Tripathi will receive a base salary of $385,000, as well as $115,000 per year from the SUNY Research Foundation in support of his leadership of UB's research efforts, which encompass more than $340 million annually in federally funded research projects. In addition, the UB Foundation will provide $150,000 annually in compensation. He will be provided university-owned housing and have use of a campus-owned vehicle during the term of his presidency.

Tripathi's compensation is consistent with that of other presidents at AAU public research universities including Stony Brook University, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education's annual presidential salary report.

About Satish K. Tripathi:

An internationally recognized computer scientist, Tripathi, 60, joined UB as provost -- the university's chief academic officer -- on July 1, 2004, after serving as dean of the Bourns College of Engineering at the University of California, Riverside.

Among his many accomplishments at UB, Tripathi was one of the creators of the UB 2020 strategic plan to achieve academic and research excellence. Tripathi led the recruitment of many prominent faculty to the university and oversaw a significant increase in the number faculty hired to develop and enhance strengths in key areas of research and scholarly activity. As a result, the university achieved its highest level of research expenditures and federally awarded research grants in its history, putting UB in league with the top national research universities in the United States.

Under Tripathi's leadership, the academic profile of UB's undergraduate and graduate students improved significantly. The university enrolled its most academically talented freshman class in each of the past three years, achieved record enrollment in its graduate and professional degree programs and increased the enrollment of highly accomplished students in these programs.

Tripathi led efforts to enrich the educational experiences of UB undergraduate students by introducing programs designed to engage them in learning and research with UB's most accomplished faculty. He also is overseeing development of new learning, living and research facilities at UB within the university's new John Kapoor Hall, Barbara and Jack Davis Hall and William R. Greiner Hall, under construction as part of "Building UB," the university's comprehensive physical plan.

He guided strategic planning for UB's international programs, which has led to significant expansion of UB's international presence and the continued globalization of the university. Tripathi signed an agreement in 2005 with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to create a new academic partnership between UB and Amrita University. He also helped form new partnerships with four other Indian universities and spearheaded major educational collaborations in Canada. UB's educational programs in Singapore, with the Singapore Institute of Management, also significantly grew under Tripathi, and UB students' participation in study abroad programs significantly increased.

Prior to joining UC Riverside in 1997, Dr. Tripathi was a professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Maryland, where his 19 years as a faculty member included being chair from 1988-95. He was a visiting professor at the University of Paris-Sud in France and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany while at the University of Maryland.

Tripathi graduated top of his class from Banaras Hindu University in India in 1968. In addition to a doctorate in computer science earned from the University of Toronto in 1979, he holds three master's degrees -- one in computer science from the University of Toronto (1976) and two in statistics from the University of Alberta (1974) and Banaras Hindu University (1970). He was awarded the Honorary Doctorate of Sciences from the prestigious Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad, the university's highest degree.

Tripathi has published more than 200 scholarly papers, supervised over 30 doctoral and postdoctoral students and served on program committees of numerous international conferences. He is a fellow of the IEEE and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Buffalo Urban League.

Tripathi is the first international-born president in UB's history, a fitting distinction for one of the most international universities in the U.S. UB is ranked 12th in the percentage of international students enrolled among all U.S. campuses, according to the Institute of International Education. More than 17 percent of UB's nearly 29,000 students are international.

A resident of Amherst, N.Y., Tripathi and his wife, Kamlesh, have two adult sons.

About the University at Buffalo:

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system, and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.

About the State University of New York:

The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive university system in the United States, educating more than 467,000 students in more than 7,500 degree and certificate programs on 64 ampuses with more than 2.5 million alumni around the globe. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunity, visit http://www.suny.edu.