Suggested Introduction for Chancellor Gary S. May

Chancellor May is a highly engaged leader with a passion for helping others succeed. He believes success is best judged by how we enhance the lives of others.

Throughout his career, he’s championed diversity, equity and inclusion in both higher education and the workplace, especially in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

In 2015, President Obama honored him with the Presidential Award for Excellence in STEM Mentoring. In 2021, he received the Lifetime Mentor Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science for demonstrating extraordinary leadership to increase participation of underrepresented groups in the fields of science and engineering. May was inducted to the National Academy of Engineering in September 2018 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in April 2020.

Chancellor May believes in the positive impact academia and industry have when they partner for the common good. He launched Aggie Square in April 2018 to spur economic growth in Sacramento and help create jobs at a variety of education levels.

A prominent voice in higher education, May is a member of the Boyer 2040 Commission, which was created by the Association for Undergraduate Education at Research Universities to design a blueprint for excellence and equity in undergraduate education at U.S. research universities.

May serves as Vice Chair of the Universities Research Association’ Council of Presidents and sits on the executive committee of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities Board of Directors. He is a board member of the American Council on Education, a member of the Task Force on Higher Education and Opportunity, and a Commissioner of the national Council on Competitiveness. He also serves on the advisory board for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

His vision as UC Davis’ seventh chancellor is to lead the university to new heights in academic excellence, inclusion, public service and upward mobility for students from all backgrounds.

Chancellor May previously served as dean of Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering, the largest and most diverse school of its kind in the nation. He earned his master’s and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering and computer science at UC Berkeley. He’s won numerous awards for his research in computer-aided manufacturing of integrated circuits.

He traces his interest in engineering back to his childhood Lego and Erector sets, along with Star Trek and science fiction heroes like Iron Man. He lives in Davis with his wife, LeShelle, a software engineer for CNN.

Please welcome Chancellor Gary May.