University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: October 30, 2003

By ARTHUR PAGE
Assistant Vice President for News Services and Periodicals

John B. Simpson on Tuesday received the unanimous approval of the SUNY Board of Trustees to be the next president of UB.

JOHN B. SIMPSON

He will take office effective Jan. 1, succeeding UB's 13th president, William R. Greiner, who announced his retirement earlier this year. Greiner was named president in 1991.

Simpson was recommended to the SUNY trustees by Chancellor Robert L. King, to whom the UB Council, the university's local governing council, and the UB Presidential Search Advisory Committee had sent their unanimous endorsements of the candidate.

Simpson comes to UB with a distinguished 30-year career in higher education.

He has achieved acclaim as a faculty member and as a researcher who has authored or co-authored more than 50 scientific papers; from 1987-94 he was a member of the editorial board of the American Journal of Physiology.

Most recently, he has been an administrator, serving first as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington and then currently as provost and executive vice chancellor at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Simpson spent 23 years at the University of Washington in Seattle. He was a faculty member and researcher in the Department of Psychology from 1975-90. He served as associate dean for computing, facilities and research from 1991-94, when he assumed responsibilities as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences—which had more than 900 full-time faculty and 18,000 undergraduates and 3,500 graduate students in 52 departments.

Simpson joined UC Santa Cruz as executive vice chancellor in 1998 and a year later assumed the additional duties of provost. He is the university's chief academic and operations officer. UC Santa Cruz is one of 10 campuses in the University of California system—with approximately 600 faculty and 14,500 undergraduate and graduate students.

A native Californian and graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, Simpson received master's and doctoral degrees in neurobiology and behavior from Northwestern University.