Armand Paul Alivisatos (born November 12, 1959) is an American chemist who has been the 14th president of the University of Chicago since September 2021. Previously at the University of California, Berkeley, he served as the 7th director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from 2009 to 2016, as interim vice chancellor for research from 2016 to 2017, and as executive vice chancellor and provost from 2017 to 2021. His academic research focuses on nanomaterials, particularly nanocrystal fabrication for biomedical and renewable energy applications.
Early life and education Paul Alivisatos was born in Chicago, Illinois, where he lived until the age of 10, when his family moved to Athens, Greece. He returned to the United States to attend the University of Chicago in the late 1970s. Alivisatos received a Bachelor of Arts degree (with honors) with a major in chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1981 and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1986. His doctoral advisor at Berkeley was Charles B. Harris. His doctoral thesis was titled The photophysical properties of molecules near metal and semiconductor surfaces.
Career After receiving his doctorate, Alivisatos joined AT&T Bell Labs working with Louis E. Brus, and began research in the field of nanotechnology.
University of California, Berkeley Alivisatos returned to the University of California, Berkeley in 1988 as an assistant professor of chemistry. He was promoted to associate professor in 1993 and to full professor in 1995. In administrative roles, Alivisatos served as the 7th director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from 2009 to 2016, as the university's interim vice chancellor for research from 2016 to 2017, and as executive vice chancellor and provost from 2017 to 2021. In August 2013, he was appointed as Samsung Distinguished Professor in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Research. He was also the founding director of the Kavli Energy Nanosciences Institute (ENSI).
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Alivisatos joined the Materials Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1991. He served as associate laboratory director for physical sciences from 2005 to 2007. In 2008, he became deputy director, and he stepped in as interim director after Steven Chu left to become United States Secretary of Energy under the first Obama administration. On November 19, 2009, Alivisatos was appointed 7th director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He refocused the lab on renewable energy and climate research, oversaw new facilities, deepened ties to the national innovation ecosystem, and advanced collaborations that sped technology transfer across industries from autos to medicine. On March 23, 2015, he announced that he would step down from the directorship once a successor was named.
University of Chicago On February 26, 2021, the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago named Alivisatos as the incoming 14th president of the University of Chicago, with his term beginning on September 1, 2021. He succeeded Robert Zimmer, who served as the university president from July 2006 to August 2021. In addition to the office of the president, he was named the John D. MacArthur Distinguished Service Professor, chair of the Board of Governors of Argonne National Laboratory, and chair of the Board of Directors of Fermi Forward Discovery Group LLC, which operates the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. On September 24, 2025, the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago extended Alivisatos's presidency through June 2030.
Academic research Alivisatos is an internationally recognized authority on nano chemistry in the synthesis of semiconductor quantum dots and multi-shaped artificial nanostructures. Further, he is a world expert on the chemistry of nanoscale crystals; one of his papers (Science, 271: 933–937, 1996) has been cited over 13,800 times. He is also an expert on how these can be applied, for example as biological markers (e.g., Science, 281: 2013–16, 1998; a paper cited over 10,900 times). In addition, his use of DNA in this area (DNA nanotechnology) has shown the surprising versatility of this molecule. He has used it to direct crystal growth and create new materials, as in Nature, 382: 609–11, 1996, and even to measure nanoscale distances (see Nature Nanotechnology, 1: 47–52, 2006). In February 2011, Alivisatos was ranked fifth among the world's top 100 chemists for the period 2000–2010 in the list released by Thomson Reuters. He is widely recognized as being the first to demonstrate that semiconductor nanocrystals can be grown into complex two-dimensional shapes, as opposed to simple one-dimensional spheres. Alivisatos proved that controlling the growth of nanocrystals is the key to controlling both their size and shape. This achievement altered the nanoscience landscape and paved the way for a slew of new potential applications, including biomedical diagnostics, revolutionary photovoltaic cells, and LED materials.
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