Dr. Santa J. Ono, president and vice chancellor of the University of British Columbia (UBC), will become 15th president of the University of Michigan (UM), effective Oct. 13. Ono, whose term will last five years, will be the first Asian American to lead UM.
Ono, 59, is a biomedical researcher. He has been president of the University of Cincinnati and senior vice provost and deputy to the provost at Emory University.
Ono is leader of the University Climate Change Coalition, chair of the U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities, and fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, National Academy of Inventors, and Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars.
He also is a recipient of the Reginald Wilson Diversity Leadership Award from the American Council on Education. And earlier this year, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Ono holds a bachelor's degree in biological science at the University of Chicago and a doctorate in experimental medicine from McGill University in Montreal.