Gregory Crawford, vice president, associate provost and former dean of the College of Science, was elected president of Miami University (Ohio) on Friday, according to a Notre Dame press release.
Over the past year, Crawford led an effort to increase the University’s presence in California, initially in the Bay Area. According to the release, he focused on expanding internship and employment opportunities for Notre Dame undergraduates and recruiting students from leading California high schools.
“For six years, [Crawford] was a dynamic leader of the College of Science and, for the past year, he has taken the lead in developing our California initiative,” University provost Thomas Burish said in the press release. “We remain committed to that initiative and, between now and Greg’s departure in July, I will work with him and others on how best to build upon the foundation he has helped to lay.”
Crawford served as the William K. Warren Foundation Dean of the College of Science from 2008 to July 2015, according the press release. As dean, he helped found the Department of Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics and launch four new master’s programs. Crawford also led fundraising initiatives for the Warren Family Research Center for Drug Discovery and the Boler-Parseghian Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases.
Crawford, a native of Elyria, Ohio, will assume his new position on July 1, according to the release. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Kent State University.
“News of Greg’s election as the next president of Miami University is bittersweet,” Burish said in the release. “While we are tremendously pleased that he has this wonderful opportunity to lead a first-rate university, we also are sorry to see him go.”
Crawford came to Notre Dame in 2008, leaving his post as dean of engineering at Brown University, where he was a professor of physics and engineering since 1996, according to the release. During his time at Notre Dame, he worked to raise money and awareness for cancer and rare disease research, biking more than 11,000 miles across the country in support of research for Niemann-Pick Type C disease.
