Diermeier

Daniel Diermeier, an internationally renowned political scientist and management scholar, has been elected Vanderbilt University’s ninth chancellor.

He will begin his term as chancellor July 1.

A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Guggenheim fellow, Diermeier is the provost at the University of Chicago, where he previously served as dean of the Harris School of Public Policy.

“Daniel has the vision, leadership experience and deep commitment to trans-institutional research and teaching that we were seeking in our ninth chancellor. I am thrilled with this decision,” Evans said. “He embodies Vanderbilt’s values and has a keen understanding of what makes Vanderbilt special – academic excellence made possible by a highly collaborative community.

“Daniel also shares Vanderbilt’s commitment to making an elite education accessible to all qualified students, regardless of their background or ability to pay, a commitment informed by his own experiences as a first-generation college student,” Evans continued. “His intellectual and strategic acumen, as well as his enthusiasm for our mission, will make him an outstanding chancellor.”

Diermeier was elected chancellor as part of an extensive search launched in April 2019 following Chancellor Emeritus Nicholas S. Zeppos’ decision to step down as chancellor Aug. 15. Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Susan R. Wente was appointed interim chancellor.

Wente will continue to serve as both interim chancellor and provost until June 30, 2020, at which time she’ll resume her role as provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs.

The Search Committee’s decision was informed by the findings of the Chancellor Search Advisory Committee, which included students, faculty, staff and alumni and was chaired by John Geer, Ginny and Conner Searcy Dean of the College of Arts and Science and Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Political Science.

In addition to his role as provost, Diermeier is the David Lee Shillinglaw Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy, where he previously served as dean. His pioneering scholarship, which he continued while dean and provost, grapples with major questions facing society, including democratic governance, formal political theory, comparative political institutions, corporate social responsibility, private politics, and crisis and reputation management.

Diermeier was elected a senior fellow of the Canadian Institute of Advanced Research in 2004. He has published four books and more than 100 research articles in leading academic journals, mostly in the fields of political science, economics and management, as well as in other areas ranging from linguistics, sociology and psychology to computer science and applied mathematics. His 2011 general audience book, Reputation Rules: Strategies for Building Your Company’s Most Valuable Asset, is widely read and consulted in academia and business. He has collaborated and consulted extensively internationally in both the public and private sectors and speaks five languages.

Diermeier is a member of the board of the University of Chicago Medical Center, the Board of Governors for Argonne National Laboratory, the board of the Field Museum of Natural History and the board of trustees of NORC at the University of Chicago. He previously served as a member of the Management Board of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and as a trustee of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole.

Diermeier and his wife, Ariela Lazar, director of visual arts education and outreach at the University of Chicago, have twin sons: a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a sophomore at New York University Tisch School’s Kanbar Institute of Film and Television.