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Board of Trustees
Tony F. Chan
Dr. Tony F. Chan is a distinguished academic leader, mathematician, computer scientist, and global higher education strategist. From 2018 to 2024, he served as President of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, where he led the university through an ambitious five-year strategic plan focused on innovation, global partnerships, and impact-driven research.
Before joining KAUST, Dr. Chan was President of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) from 2009 to 2018. Under his leadership, HKUST rose significantly in global university rankings, forged strategic alliances with top institutions such as Caltech, MIT, and Oxford, and became the first Asian university to present an IdeasLab at the World Economic Forum in Davos. During his tenure, HKUST expanded its infrastructure, introduced MOOCs, and led major academic reforms, including the transition to a four-year undergraduate curriculum.
Dr. Chan has also held influential positions in the United States, including Assistant Director of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), where he oversaw policy and budget for the largest directorate at NSF with an annual budget of over US$ 1 billion. At UCLA, he served as Dean of Physical Sciences, Chair of the Department of Mathematics, and Director of the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM), which he helped establish.
Dr. Chan serves on several prominent international advisory boards and committees, including the Boards of Trustees of the Future Investment Initiative Institute (Saudi Arabia) and the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Russia), as well as advisory councils for several leading institutions in Asia and Europe. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of several prestigious societies, including IEEE, SIAM, and AAAS.
Dr. Chan holds a PhD in computer science from Stanford University and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering and aeronautics from Caltech.
