NEWS

Notre Dame VP finalist for Miami president

Bowdeya Tweh
btweh@enquirer.com
Gregory Crawford is a finalist to be Miami University's next president.
Photo by Matt Cashore of University of Notre Dame.

The finalist to be Miami University's next president will visit Oxford next week.

The university's board of trustees said Thursday that the visit of Gregory Crawford, a professor of physics and vice president and associate provost at the University of Notre Dame, follows a nine-month search.

The board is expected to vote on Crawford's appointment Feb. 19 at its regular meeting. If confirmed, Crawford will be the university's 22nd president.

David Hodge, who became Miami University's 21st president on July 1, 2006, announced last year he would retire in 2016.

“On behalf of the trustees, we wish to thank the faculty, staff, students, alumni and community members from all of Miami’s campuses who contributed to this important process," said David Budig, board of trustees chair in a statement. "We especially want to thank those who also served as members of the search committee."

Crawford, an Ohio native, holds a bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics, a master’s in physics and a doctorate in chemical physics, all from Kent State University. He has published more than 400 research and education publications, review articles and book chapters, and holds more than 20 U.S. patents and patent applications.

While he served as the William K. Warren Foundation Dean of Notre Dame’s College of Science, he launched endowments for new research centers and interdisciplinary degree programs at both the undergraduate and graduate level, launched a new department and helped bolster undergraduate research participation.

Members of the search committee are Trustees David Budig and Mark Ridenour, Professors Linda Marchant, Glenn Platt and Ann Rypstra, Associated Student Government Secretary for Diversity Affairs Ifeolu Claytor, President of the Foundation Board of Directors Susan Naus, President of the Alumni Association Board of Directors Ted Downing, and Senior Vice President for Finance and Business Services David Creamer.

Crawford will visit campus next week and forums are scheduled as follows:

Faculty forum: 3:30 p.m. Monday, Feb.15, Oxford campus, Armstrong Student Center’s Wilks Theater
Open forum: 9:45 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16, Hamilton campus, Wilks Conference Center, rooms A & B 
Open forum: 1 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16, Middletown campus, Johnston Hall, Knoll Community Center, room 142 
Open forum: 9:45 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 17, Oxford campus, Armstrong Student Center’s Wilks Theater

Crawford’s curriculum vitae is online at miamioh.edu/presidential-search.